August 19, 2011

PAKISTAN: Karachi Situation Takes War-Like Turn

The Pakistan Observer
written by Staff
Friday August 19, 2011

AS PPP and MQM are preparing for another embrace apparently for the sake of peace and security of Karachi, there continues to be a nose-dive in the law and order situation in the commercial hub of the country. In the latest incident, twenty people including a former Member of the National Assembly belonging to PPP became victim of terror and target killing on Wednesday.

The situation in Karachi is worsening with the passage of everyday rather with the passage of every hour and the gravity gives it a war-like turn. What happened on Wednesday made it a black day in the sense that almost every moment a body fell in a free for all environment where law enforcing agencies, as usual, were rendered irrelevant by the trouble-makers, who had a field day.

The entire city was in a state of shock and awe as rockets fell here and there and motor-cyclists sprayed people with bullets as they were having Iftar during the holy month of Ramadan. Bodies kept on bleeding, there was panic in hospitals and mourners wailing over dead bodies of their near and dear ones lodged protest in front of the CM House, conveying a vivid impression that people are losing faith in the capacity and capability of the administration to ensure safety of their life and property, which is fundamental obligation of any Government.

But regrettably, there is still no sense of urgency among the power corridors to arrest the ever-deteriorating situation and take measures to restore sense of security among residents of the city.

We have been emphasizing in these columns that visits of the Interior Minister to Karachi and hollow statements of the authorities would not yield any positive result, as situation has reached to a stage where the entire city is sitting on powder-keg and anything could happen any moment.

A recent meeting of the Corps Commanders had also expressed concern over worsening law and order situation in Karachi but Wednesday’s session of the Defence Committee of the Cabinet (DCC), which was devoted to internal security, apparently did not come out with any concrete plan to restore normalcy in the city.

We believe that Rangers and Police should be given extra-ordinary powers to deal with the situation in an across-the-board manner with freedom of action and without any political interference. One also fails to understand as to why the Government is unable to convene an APC on Karachi when all the parties and stakeholders are publically supporting the idea and are ready to extend a helping hand in restoring peace to the city.

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