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Thursday March 28, 2024

Can the Rangers do it?

An abiding truism it is that corruption is the cement that binds this entire scheme of things together. The obvious inference is that if you remove corruption, the system will come tumbling down. That is why we have cynically lived with all forms of fraud and deceit, with the connivance

By Ghazi Salahuddin
June 14, 2015
An abiding truism it is that corruption is the cement that binds this entire scheme of things together. The obvious inference is that if you remove corruption, the system will come tumbling down. That is why we have cynically lived with all forms of fraud and deceit, with the connivance of our rulers. But what happens when corruption grows beyond our capacity to endure? Is some kind of a breakdown imminent?
These thoughts, you would have guessed, are prompted by the press release issued by the Rangers on Thursday that outlines the evil empire of corruption that has almost taken over Karachi. The statement is a recap of the briefing given by the DG of Rangers, Major General Bilal Akbar, to the Sindh apex committee.
A little twist here is that the meeting of the apex committee was held on June 4 and the press release was issued a week later, on June 11. A week, they say, is a long time in politics. It is longer in matters of security. Does this, in any way, suggest a sense of frustration on the part of the Rangers that the political actors are dragging their feet in dealing with the derelictions that have been adequately identified?
Let us first look at the picture that General Akbar has drawn. This picture is framed in the flaming strap of a nexus between politics and crime. We have been told that more than Rs230 billion is robbed annually from the citizens of Karachi through various rackets such as extortion, land grabbing, water supply and smuggling of Iranian diesel. Rs230 billion? Irrespective of how this calculation was made, our godfathers may accept it as a compliment.
The statement said that the huge crime racket was jointly operated by the political parties, city government, district administration, construction companies, estate agents and police officials. There is a pointed reference to “a major political party”. Incidentally, both the major parties that have presided over the affairs of Karachi – the Muttahida Qaumi Movement and the Pakistan People’s Party – have expressed their reservations about how the Rangers’ salvo has exploded and what it might mean.
Dr Farooq Sattar of the MQM held a press conference on Friday at Nine Zero to reject and condemn the statement issued by the Rangers. He said that the statement did not mention the name of any party but the MQM was being targeted by some elements. On behalf of the PPP government of Sindh, education minister Nisar Ahmed Khuhro said that this was in no way a charge sheet against the provincial government because the crimes identified by the DG of Rangers were not new and had been persisting in Karachi for the last several years.
These assertions apart, we are all witness to and victims of all that has been happening in Karachi for the last several years. We are also aware of the horrible monstrosity of the deeds that have been committed by those who have governed Karachi. What may be described as the silencing of the citizens of Karachi was achieved through violence and intimidation. Karachiites have lived in a realm of fear.
It has been suggested by some observers that the Rangers’ statement portends a decisive operation to cleanse Karachi of the organised crimes that have been identified. But can this mission be accomplished without dismantling the existing structures and creating a massive disequilibrium at the national level? This is not to say that the status quo should prevail, with some tinkering on its periphery. In fact, the situation is now untenable. Not just Karachi’s but the nation’s survival is at stake.
But, given the inevitability of planned action, a number of questions are staring us in the face. How will the army leadership proceed if the political government of the province, for its own vested interests, is unwilling to cooperate? Essentially, do they – the military and paramilitary forces – have the capacity and the expertise to carry out this assignment successfully? What kind of homework has already been done? The criminal underworld, as the Rangers’ statement starkly underlines, is very extensive and powerful. When pushed to the wall, it is bound to retaliate in its wily ways. How will this backlash be dealt with?
Be that as it may, this is the moment of truth. People are desperately yearning for some relief from the oppression of the criminal mafia that is patronised by our major political parties. Some moves to go after corrupt bureaucrats seem to have been initiated. That is why Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Memon has complained that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has summoned some officials of the Sindh government to implicate them in different matters. There are intimations of a kind of confrontation between the PPP and the establishment.
This argument that the present government of Sindh should not be held responsible for crimes that have persisted for long years is patently puerile. After all, the PPP has been in the saddle, in Sindh, for seven years. Not only that, the common perception is that corruption and criminal irregularities have markedly increased in Sindh, with Karachi serving as the main hunting ground.
Indeed, the stories you hear on the grapevine are so much more shocking than what has been revealed in the Rangers’ statement. One is actually baffled by the daredevil stunts of some high functionaries of the government. Is this some kind of a death wish? Our tragedy is that the suicidal tendencies exhibited by some corrupt rulers, past and present, have affected our individual lives in so many ways. We find it hard to operate in this system without compromising our values and surrendering our rights.
General Akbar, to my dismay, has not been very candid. He should have been more specific in his public statement. He should have named names. This is what the media would not be able to do, all the time insisting that everyone knows who it is alluding to. If some action is intended, it will not be against phantoms that lurk in deep shadows.
Sadly, our expectations about what can happen are bound to be modest. There is little scope for a revolution. Not even ‘tabdeeli’. We do not have the leadership. We do not have sufficient human capital. A society nurtured by long years of mindless corruption can hardly muster the will and the competence to make a new beginning.
Yet something has to be done in a last-ditch attempt to save Karachi. One only hopes that those who are at the helm at this time have the ability to not just act but also to think.
The writer is a staff member.
Email: ghazi_salahuddin@hotmail.com