Is the civil-military hybrid sustainable?

ISLAMABAD: A new experimental governance structure has been imposed on Karachi, the city with ten percent of Pakistan’s population. The GHQ-crafted Apex Committee is a civil-military hybrid. On the face of it, the Apex Committee is captained by Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah with V Corps Commander Lieutenant-General Naveed Mukhtar as a member of the committee.
The ground reality is that under the new governance structure there has been an incremental shifting of power from Bilawal House to V Corps Headquarters. The Provincial Assembly of Sindh has long been irrelevant and now the Provincial Cabinet is also out of the business of provincial decision making. The ground reality may be different but on the face of it the Apex Committee is a monitoring committee.
Over the past two decades, Karachi has become an intersection where politics, organized crime syndicates and militancy meet to hold 10 percent of Pakistan’s population and 25 percent of Pakistan’s GDP hostage. Unfortunately, Karachi’s political elite now has a vested interest in the maintenance of status quo.
The Apex Committee was meant to send out a strong message to Karachi’s political elite to voluntarily separate politics from crime. Clearly, the message did not go through. Can the Apex Committee, the offspring of two entities of different species, be tasked to separate politics from crime? Can the Apex Committee, the civil-military hybrid, be tasked to break Karachi’s status quo? The Qaim Ali Shah-captained Apex Committee failed to separate politics from crime. Proof: On March 11, MQM’s headquarters had to be raided.
The V Corps-led raid sent out two distinct messages. One – the civil-military hybrid is not sustainable. Two - the V Corps has taken over Karachi.
Pakistan Army has broken Karachi’s status quo. In addition to that, there are military courts, convicted terrorists are being hanged, targeted operations are taking place and the Chief of Army Staff has undertaken trips to London and Kabul.
To be certain, the GHQ has two constituencies to satisfy-the uniformed rank-and-file and the non-uniformed public opinion. So far, the GHQ has managed to satisfy both the rank-and-file and the public opinion.To be sure, expectations are high-and going through the roof.We have all seen magicians pulling rabbits out of hats. Who can pull habits out of rats?