Karachi gets a peacemaker

Capital suggestion
Major-General Rizwan Akhtar, DG Pakistan Rangers (Sindh): “If Karachi is ever to become peaceful again, the militant wings of political parties need to be abolished.” August 29, 2013. September 22, 2014: Major-General Rizwan Akhtar gets another star to add to his uniform. November 8, 2014: Lieutenant-General Rizwan Akhtar takes office as DG Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
Between November 8, 2014 and February 8, 2015, the General Headquarters (GHQ) seems to have made two decisions: to separate crime and politics plus to separate politics from militancy. On February 8, MQM leaders dismissed the JIT report on Baldia factory fire.
The truth about Karachi is that it is Pakistan’s economic hub where organised crime, militant wings of political parties and terrorists intersect – three bombs in one. The other truth about Karachi is that Karachi’s political structures are completely ineffective, the administrative machinery is absolutely powerless and the only real force is Pakistan Rangers (Sindh).
The IGP-Sindh told the Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) that “40 percent of the police officials, including SSPs, SPs and DSPs, had been recruited on political grounds” and that the IGP has no control over them. Pakistan Rangers (Sindh), told the CJP that “criminal groups had political backing and that such elements had become part of political parties.”
Karachi’s ground reality is that politicians have failed to find a political solution and had accepted the war for resources by bloody forces of organised crime, militant wings of political parties and terrorist entities. Imagine: ten percent of Pakistan’s population – one Pakistani out of every 10 – being held hostage. Imagine: 25 percent of Pakistan’s GDP being held hostage. Imagine: 30 percent of Pakistan’s industrial capacity being held hostage. Imagine: 53 percent of the FBR’s revenues being held hostage. Imagine: our only port being held hostage.
Karachi had no peacemaker. Peace in Karachi was in no one’s interest. The ANP and MQM elite have been into ethnic fear-mongering. The PPP elite have been the most potent spoiler. In Karachi, the interests of the masses and the interests of the elite have collided.
The MQM leadership exploits ethnic nationalism to sustain its hold over power. The ANP leadership is doing the exact same thing to gain power. The PPP is playing the perfect spoiler. Peace in Karachi is in no one’s interest.
Karachi had no peacemaker. Peace in Karachi was in no one’s interest. For the MQM, Karachi is the lone source of a couple of dozen National Assembly seats plus 51 Sindh Assembly seats. For the MQM, Karachi enables the MQM to capture more than its fair share of power in Islamabad as well as in Sindh.
The ANP claims to represent some 25 percent of Karachi’s population. For the ANP, Karachi is a $40 billion pie in which the ANP feels that the party is not getting its fair share. For the PPP, Karachi only produces half a dozen seats of the 92 that the PPP has in Sindh. For the PPP, 95 percent of its political stakes in Sindh are outside of Karachi. The PPP views the MQM-ANP bloodbath as being in the PPP’s political advantage.
For the TTP, Karachi is a godsend, a unique opportunity to squeeze Pakistan’s financial hub and delegitmise the state. After all, the TTP’s objective is not just the capture of Karachi but of the state itself. For foreign intelligence agencies Karachi had become an intersection where militant wings of political parties, sectarian outfits and organized criminal mafias meet, bleed each other and weaken Pakistan. Karachi had no peacemaker. Peace in Karachi was in no one’s interest.
Karachi gets a peacemaker. Will the peacemaker succeed? Jean Giraudoux, the French essayist, said, “The secret of success is sincerity.”
The writer is a columnist based in Islamabad. Email: farrukh15@hotmail.com
Twitter: @saleemfarrukh