While tempers soar, time is of the essence to keep operation on track

DUBAI: As the army corps commanders met in Rawalpindi and the Rangers chief met the Sindh chief minister in Karachi, there is a growing feeling that the hitherto passive resistance by PPP against the Rangers operation could soon turn out to be an open confrontation.
This passive resistance has been seen in different shapes and forms in recent weeks, sometimes overt and mostly covert. Many politicians and bureaucrats who thought they might be questioned or arrested, either quickly left the country or sought judicial cover getting bails before arrest.
The latest splash of anti-Rangers advertisements which mention that even FIRs have been registered against the Rangers, is one such covert attempt, denied at face by the Sindh government but facts showing that everything happened right under the nose of the PPP leaders.
Who would believe that FIRs were registered against Rangers by police and the PPP high-ups did not know. Likewise the Sindh Information Ministry approved and paid for the police ads and still a junior police official was blamed and quickly removed from the scene, probably sent out of the country.
It is known that the Karachi operation, which took the PPP leadership by surprise when it turned into an anti-corruption drive and many PPP men, political and non-political, were hauled up led by Dr Asim Hussain, angered the Sindh Government and the PPP bosses.
The resistance started with Mr Asif Ali Zardari threatening to throw bricks at the army. The Chief Minister then demanded a halt to the NAB and FIA actions in Sindh, the Senate Chairman joined the chorus by demanding accountability of the generals and the judges, NAB was threatened and a new accountability commission for Sindh was proposed to stop the action, the chief minister publicly complained several times that he was not being taken into confidence though technically Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif still calls him the captain of the Karachi Operation.
Yet the scope and grip of the operation kept on expanding with the latest arrest of some PPP MPs in Sindh.
But the publication of anti-Rangers ads and the revelation that FIRs had been registered for abduction of some people by “unknown Rangers” may have brought the temperatures to a boiling point.
It looked funny that the ads identified the abductors as Rangers but also added unknown. If they were Rangers personnel, then the FIRs have to be registered against individuals who took away the missing men as well as the officers who ordered these socalled “abductions”.
That is why the Rangers head General Bilal met the Chief Minister on Thursday to express his reservations, which in simple undiplomatic language means asking for an immediate stop to “the dirty tricks and machinations” of the Sindh/PPP government against the Karachi operation.
More importantly, the first item revealed by the ISPR Press release about the Corps Commanders meeting on Thursday states: “The forum took an in-depth review of the internal security situation and discussed professional matters.” This in simple words means the generals discussed at length the on-going operation, the passive and open resistance being shown by the elected governments in Sindh and Punjab as well as the Centre.
It has to be remembered that Federal Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan recently said the Rangers had no right to conduct accountability. But he did not go further to elaborate on what the Rangers had already done or were planning to do.
Thus the growing state of confrontation between the political governments and the military establishment does not augur well for either the Operation Zarb Azb, the Karachi Operation or even the political system.
If this situation erupts into a rash decision by either of these parties, the country could enter a state of gridlock, as had happened on October 12, 1999 when the political government of Mian Nawaz Sharif took action against the then army chief and unleashed a chain of events that went out of control ending in the collapse and winding up of the entire system.
The military also has to be careful not to let this operation, which now includes action against the corrupt, turn into a witch hunt only against politicians, against one province or against those resisting the operation, actively or passively. It has to remain across the board, transparent within the legal parameters, and focused on the criminals, terrorists and their abettors.
More important is what happens to those who are being picked up and arrested, interrogated or debriefed by the Rangers. It has to be clarified, and quickly, how far the investigations have gone, what and whether evidence has been collected and when will these culprits be charged and brought before courts, whether civil or army.