For Whom the Bell Tolls!
A major part of the city of Karachi has been paralysed over the past three days due to disturbances that started with the police firing last Friday on unarmed demonstrators proceeding to the Sindh Chief Minister’s House to court arrest. Independent observers have confirmed that the police action was rather hasty however they deserve some credit for not going berserk under grave provocation that took place later. Waiting on cue and not to be outdone, MQM militants in strength came out of the woodworks after spending two years in the cold almost to the day and took on the civilian law enforcement agencies (LEAs). Since civil disturbances having political overtones are clearly outside the ambit of the mandate of Operation Clean-Up, the Army very wisely stayed out of the fray leaving peace enforcement to the police and the para-military Rangers.
Karachi has been a city waiting to explode for some time. What we are seeing is only the opening sequence of what seems to be a programmed escalation. Even in the best of times, the socio-economic problems of this urban metropolis are so acute that it needs crisis management. With vast areas of the city in the grip of civil strife, this could easily turn into disaster management. The present fracas is a natural culmination of political neglect whatever the government-controlled media may say and any attempt to paper over a temporary truce will fail unless compromises are made by either side. The MQM must clearly recognize that the PPP is the majority party in the Province of Sindh and while the MQM does represent the urban majority, in the overall context of democracy, it is in minority in the Sindh Province. The PPP has full right to form the Provincial Government and to rule, with or without the MQM, but for the PPP it is important to come to terms with the MQM majority in the urban areas. While it can govern in theory without the MQM, in actual practice it cannot rule the Province without the association and/or cooperation of the urban majority party. As we have seen in the past three days, militancy with all its evils is impatiently waiting to take over in the wings. As yet death may not be stalking the streets in abandon but with loss of civilian control in a state of confrontation and chaos, innocent victims may increase manifold in the resultant crossfire. At the moment, large areas are without electricity and water, food and essential items are in short supply, this is a situation tailor-made for criminals to take over from political militants and exploit the situation into a state of anarchy. As it is by setting up ambushes off the main roads in by-lanes and side roads, a classic trap of urban guerilla warfare had been set. This was avoided by the LEAs simply because they wisely did not venture to enforce their authority off the main streets.
The need of the hour is dialogue, immediate and unconditional, between the two major political parties in Sindh, the PPP and MQM to (1) first settle the immediate strife and (2) come to a long-term understanding. While the MQM has made its point about its impact in Karachi and Hyderabad, it is their constituents who are mostly facing the direct hardships. How long will they continue to bear their misery before turning the force of their silent resentment equally on their own leadership? Responsible MQM behaviour lies in mature compromise as much as the PPP must come to terms with the fact that continued disruption of economic life in this major port city will lead to economic hardships countrywide as well as social misery for the whole country. Concessions have to be given by both the Parties in a spirit of compromise for the sake of national amity. For the PM it is important that she personally takes charge of the situation to the exclusion of almost everything else and takes hard decisions insofar that the Government at the Centre is not destabilized by the happenings in Karachi. This situation must not be underrated as “a storm in a tea cup”. Karachi is the Achilles Heel of any Federal Government, the MQM is taking a deliberate calculated risk to that end using their urban masses in a deadly political chess-game. In a no-win situation, what choices do they have?
In the meantime, kudos to the Army for staying out of the fracas and in doing so gently nudging the Government (and the MQM) into a dialogue situation. To step into the city cauldron now would have played into the hands of agent provocateurs who were ready with disinformation material, in particular lurid headlines ready to be published in the media internationally about Human Rights abuses. Democratic problems need to be sorted out only by democratic means. One can only thank Heavens that contrary to its usual modus operandi in blundering into such “Aid to Civil Power” situations, the Army was sophisticated enough to diplomatically avoid again becoming the “fall guy”. In a democracy, responsibility for order is incumbent on the policies of an elected government, as a vibrant national party why should not the PPP be upto the task in its own political backyard?
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