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The Inferno Within

For a person who led a relentless struggle in the 80s decade for the restoration of unadulterated democracy in Pakistan, Ms Benazir displays a remarkable obduracy in refusing to recognize the ground realities of the increasingly anarchical situation in Karachi. Though it is true that fate intervened rather fortuitously to her advantage, one cannot take the credit away from Ms Benazir’s struggle against dictatorship (and vestiges thereof) with respect to the restoration of democracy in Pakistan. The then Establishment tried to stop her in her tracks by the cobbling together of the IJI by Maj Gen (later Lt Gen Retd) Hameed Gul, the then DG ISI, but the people of Pakistan gave her enough NA seats to be the prime contender to form the Federal Government. Even when the sizeable MQM bloc changed sides in late 1989, she survived a vote of no-confidence in the National Assembly, mostly because both the intelligentsia and the masses continued to believe in her recurring song of democracy.

During her long stint in the cold, Ms Benazir had repeatedly pointed out that with drugs and Kalashnikovs flooding into the urban cities of Pakistan, particularly Karachi, there was a dire necessity to usher in democracy immediately to “counter the dangerous vacuum created by Martial Law and dictatorship at the grassroots level because of the lack of leadership duly elected by the people.” Her contention rightly was that a mixture of ethnic and sectarian bigots along with mobsters, drug barons, foreign-trained terrorists etc, would flood into this void, anybody who could wield power through the power of forcible suggestion, more potently, through the barrel of a gun. Ms Benazir Bhutto had very rightly advocated that the only solution to avoid apocalypse was to have free and fair elections at every tier of government so that credible, authentic leaders would emerge, with their roots in a rock-solid base because of the peoples’ confidence in their abilities and person.

It is ironic that today the same pillar of democracy that most of us believed was the ultimate in commitment to the people, is now looking at every other possibility as a solution for Karachi except the one most obvious and logical for restoration of peace, the democratic right of the citizens of Karachi to choose their own leaders. Without going into debate about how and why the MQM abstained from the NA vote in 1993 and thus threw the political balance Ms Bhutto’s way, the fact remains that the present elected representatives from Karachi at the national level do not really represent the electorate for the most part. This is not as critical as the failure to conduct Local Bodies elections in the urban areas, particularly Karachi. History is witness that selected Mohalla Committees cannot be foisted on the people, they will invariably be given a short shrift. Credibility can only be ensured by the leadership being chosen by the people. In the absence of elected leaders in Karachi’s localities, youth (both guided and misguided) have fostered ethnicity and sectarianism on the strength of the barrel of a gun. The fabric of an orderly society that is the essence of any civilization has degenerated into parochial and motivated groupings at war with each other, this has led to disintegration of that particular glue of reason and compromise that holds society together.

To delay due process of adult franchise any further will lead to disaster of the greatest magnitude. The PM must not be waylaid by the fears that her Advisors and the intelligence agencies daily feed her (as they did her predecessors before her) that allowing the MQM to regain power in Karachi would be a calamity. Her response should be the same democratic mores she repeatedly urges on the Opposition, the verdict of the electorate must be paramount and must be respected. Given massive support in Karachi, the MQM will come into power in most city areas as surely as night follows day, let the MQM bear the responsibility of restoring peace in their respective areas in the city. It is unthinkable that leaders who have a genuine commitment to the people who have exercised confidence in them in the past and one daresays will do so in the future, will stand by and allow their respective electorates to be massacred or their localities to be destroyed. That accountability is the essence of democracy. Unless elected leaders exist in Mohalla Committees to coordinate and exchange information from the street level upwards that would pinpoint terrorist and saboteurs in our midst, credible facts to counter such people will remain lacking. Artificial leadership thrust by government fiat can never be a credible alternative as the people will never trust them.

One of the major lessons of Vietnam and Afghanistan was that military means usually cause great casualties and massive destruction but can never overcome the will of the people. Another fact to emerge was that as the violence escalates, all enforcement agencies, military, civil or para-military, universally keep asking for more men and material to overcome the problem at hand till one day they themselves become a State within a State and thus the greater problem. What do Armoured Personnel Carriers in the city’s posh areas as a “show of force” accomplish? Will they serve to scare hardened terrorists from striking mercilessly at random at places and times of their choosing (and thus act as a deterrent) or by this show of force do they simply instil terror in the hearts of the innocent populace they are supposed to protect? For that matter, what do bunkers achieve? For professional soldiers, bunkers are a symbol of Maginot Line immobility that is anathema to the concept of urban warfare where mobility must be the only logic. Except for the necessity of guarding vital installations, bunkers exist only as symbols of the impotence of law enforcement agencies (LEAs) to enforce the law. In essence, the LEAs adopt a defensive posture, they accept that instead of taking the initiative they can at best only react. The Army extricated itself (very rightly) from the proverbial blanket of the Karachi morass by bringing in para-military Rangers as credible replacements. However, in the few weeks after the lifting of the strong (and commendable) restraint exercised by the local Army leadership on their subordinate officers and men, the rather over-bearing attitude of the Rangers rank and file with the civil population has caused their credibility to rapidly become less than zero. To a wary populace they increasingly seem to be a re-incarnation of (late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto – vintage) Federal Security Force (FSF). While this labelling may not be fair at all, the fact is that the populace that had lost all confidence in the local police seems to have rapidly reached the same stage of skepticism at the effectiveness and commitment of the Rangers. While the Army hierarchy had been repeatedly requesting the civil administration for better equipment for the Rangers for the past 2 years, suddenly post-Nov 30, 1994 (the day the Army unilaterally withdrew from the urban areas of Sindh, particularly Karachi), the Rangers have been bombarded with Federal Government largesse in money and material. A spectacular rise in terror acts has been directly proportional to this. Money would have been better on the Sindh Police who have borne the brunt of the casualties and whose job it is in the ultimate analysis to keep the peace. While one may disagree respectfully with the present IG Police Sindh Mr Afzal Shigri as regards his rather extreme views about the MQM, he does happen to be a professional law enforcement officer of known integrity who has competent subordinate officers serving under him for the most part. The funding and upgrading of the Sindh Police, particularly Karachi Police, should have been a greater priority. In a sense, therefore, the people may be getting a wrong perception of the creation of an FSF-type entity for future oppression, dedicated to the desires of the rulers rather than the requirement of the laws they are meant to uphold. It is amazing how people who theoretically should be dedicated to ideals find it convenient to sacrifice conscience at the altar of one’s career and/or the glitter of gold.

One gives credit to both the Shia and Sunni sects in the city, in particular their leadership, despite grievous provocation they have been able to distinguish the crass villainy of third forces in trying to pit them against each other, how longer will we keep testing fate from encroaching bloodily on the patience of brothers-in-faith? As much as Karachi cannot be governed by remote control, how longer will people who matter avoid facing the fact that some of the people running amok may well have been trained by RAW and were formerly Al-Zulfikar terrorists? If the game plan is to make MQM disintegrate on sectarian lines then a greater calamity awaits this city than that being propagated as a certainty by the intelligence agencies if the MQM should come back to power, (no matter that power is not a gift to be royally bestowed but a right acquired by the free exercise of the vote).
Karachi has a myriad number of socio-economic problems that need to be addressed, to those will be added one of environment pollution in the unlikely possibility that the new power stations being planned should ever come on-stream. Will all the power generated be able to resuscitate the carcass of a dead entity? The answer to redemption is so simple, immediate and unfettered Local Bodies elections followed by similar exercise of adult franchise up the tiers of power. Karachi is a rich city, it does not need any aid, only the ability to exploit its potential and resources in a peaceful environment. No other solution is more pressing than a return of power to the people of this city.

Where there is smoke there is bound to be a fire and since Third World-ers are great conspiracy theorists, they tend to believe that smoke is meant only as a camouflage for the perpetrators of the fire. In Karachi this fire is burning fiercely in the streets. There is no convenient fire-escape from this developing inferno, by their benign inaction the Federal Government is seen to be a part of the problem rather than a “fire brigade” dedicated to the rescue of the city’s hapless inhabitants.

Instead of addressing the core issues that have brought Karachi to the verge of absolute anarchy, Ms Benazir seems to skirt the major problems. Hard to believe that this is the same South-Asian vintage Joan of Arc of the 80s decade, holding forth the torch of democracy for the people of Pakistan. Regretfully, the PM is giving the word “obfuscation” due legitimacy much beyond what is generally attributed to bureaucracy.

Karachi (and Sindh) needs strong decisions in the immediate future by the elected leader of Pakistan, some of which may not be palatable to her. One of those decisions must be to immediately impose Governor’s rule in the Province and put a Lieutenant Governor or Chief Commissioner or whatever you may like to call him (or her), as a “SUPREMO” in charge of all the various administrative agencies in Karachi. This should include KMC, KDA, KESC, KWSB, Karachi Police, Sindh Rangers, Karachi Port Trust (KPT), Port Qasim Authority (PQA) and any Federal, Provincial, intelligence, administrative or other entity working within Karachi city’s parameters and meant for Karachi e.g Income tax, Customs and Excise, etc, i.e. everybody except those directly working for Federal and Provincial Governments where their work does not pertain to Karachi.

We must hold Local Bodies elections immediately in Karachi, followed by National and Provincial Assembly elections in Sindh. This will fill the leadership vacuum at the grassroots level. Unless leaders elected by the people are made responsible and accountable for their welfare and contentment, there will continue to be a void which will be increasingly filled by the drug Mafia, mobsters, terrorists, etc. While the city’s people must have a voice in Islamabad and the Provincial Assembly must function, we should keep Karachi’s special status in limbo till peace is fully restored, the appointed Administrator gradually handing over power to a directly elected Mayor.

Declare a general amnesty for all politically motivated crimes provided the perpetrators own upto the crime within a specified period of time. If any such crime remains unsolved after the period for availing general amnesty is over and evidence points to elements that have not owned up, they should be duly prosecuted. The amnesty may give relief to the accused but the price they must pay is that exposure would make the public aware of the criminals in our society, it is a gamble we must force on them.

Make Karachi a weapons-free city. Only uniformed police on very limited VIP duties or vital installations or Rangers/Police joint patrols should carry arms. VIPs and vital installations must be specially gazetted as such. No one in civilian clothes is to carry arms on pain of being shot on sight. Private security company guards or private chowkidars must only carry arms within the premises (not even outside the gates and doors) of offices, banks, residences, etc, exception being specified Cash-Transit-vehicles with uniformed guards. Even foot police patrols must not carry arms unless accompanied by Rangers.

All illegal immigration must come to a stop. Identification must be at the borders, airports and ports. The government is dreaming (which may turn into a nightmare if implemented) if it thinks it can send 1.2 million illegal Bangladeshis, 150,000 Iranians, 150,000 Afghans, 50,000 immigrants of Burmese Muslim origin, etc (including a continuous stream from India of about 30-40,000 annually), to their respective homes without further complicating socio-economic issues in the city besides irretrievably damaging relations with Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Iran, Burma, etc. A scheme should be initiated for insisting that illegal aliens should be registered by a cut-off date with the proviso that those found unregistered would be heavily fined and deported. For registered aliens, employees should pay taxes to the city government (not less than Rs 300 per person per month) while those self-employed must pay their own due share. The idea is to discourage immigration to Karachi by levying tax disincentives, not to open another front in violence as the immigrants fight deportation while opening a new avenue for corruption to the law enforcement agencies.

The Citizen-Police Liaison Committee (CPLC) has functioned quite effectively in bringing large number of kidnappers to book. In particular, its present Chief Nazim Haji as well as former Chief Jameel Yousuf have repeatedly risked their lives (and in some instances their families) in this voluntary work, an outstanding example of citizen participation in the solving urban crime. CPLC could become a Citizen Liaison Committee (CLC) and enlarged to increase its crime-combating effectiveness, at least in investigative work if not in actual operations. People like Nazim Haji or Jameel Yousuf should be considered for the post of City Administrator as in contrast to others they have voluntarily put their lives at stake for the well being of this city while our drawing room stalwarts have shown no such commitment.

The use of loudspeakers in mosques for purposes other than Azaan must be stopped forthwith. Mosques, which should be havens of peace, are being increasingly used to disseminate vicious sectarian propaganda. Religious moderation must be enforced by the toughest means at our disposal as it erodes Muslim unity and is increasingly being exploited by third parties by their attacks on mosques to try and ignite sectarian tensions. This evil has to be confronted not by rhetoric but by positive action.
Most important of all, GOP should restrict various intelligence agencies in Karachi from becoming a State within a State by being answerable to the city’s SUPREMO. However, the criticism must not be one-sided because within the limitations and parameters assigned to them they have given valuable information and analysis while working under adverse conditions. It is only when they have been misused for personal vendetta or career aspirations that they have gone wrong, on the other hand they must be feeling frustrated at seeing those persons walk about scot-free against whom they have incontrovertible evidence. Responsible leaders must always remember that intelligence operatives have no loyalties except to their own organisation or themselves. Those who profess deep devotion at the cost of their conscience are quite capable of cheerfully becoming hangmen for those whom they serve so loyally today. We need the agencies to tell the PM bluntly what she would not like to hear e.g. the involvement of former Al-Zulfikar terrorists along with Jeay-Sindh activists devoted to the secession of Sindh acting as willing tools of Indian RAW.

Perhaps it is also time to take heed of the masses at the grassroots level. The last week or so has witnessed hectic activity in Karachi as neighbourhood committees have been formed to discuss ways and means to counter the spreading anarchy, in this women have been in the vocal forefront. Even dedicated political and social workers of known integrity and honesty like Mairaj Mohammad Khan, Akhtar Hameed Khan etc have come out of their self-imposed silence to project one-action non-political agenda, “Aman” (or Peace), for which there is grassroot and undisputed support. It is no use singling out any one political Party for recriminations, everyone has contributed in varying degree to Karachi’s rapid slide to apocalypse.

The road to peace and tranquillity is blocked by the massive obstacle called the quota system. This is the major reason for frustration among the youth of Karachi as they feel that their merit is negated by partiality because of the accident of birth. While there may be good reason to protect the rights of the people of some backward areas, enough years have been given for their due adjustment. We must now do away with the quota system, if not completely, at most not more than 10% or less of the whole, whether in education slots or job opportunities, etc. There are many other initiatives to take, particularly in the socio-economic sector to kick-start the economy but nothing can move while the streets are on fire and the environment is not conducive for commercial and/or industrial activity. What one fears is that, given bad advice from un-elected officials, GOP might try a reverse fire. That would be a gamble which would endanger the whole population to a larger conflagration in the nation than what we are witness to in the streets of fire in this city.

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