Living in a Fool’s Paradise
By Syed Kamran Hashmi
Westfield, IN
Who can disagree that the law and order situation in Karachi is despicable, as bad as it was once in Beirut, and almost as bad as it is currently in Somalia? Realizing that, many Pakistanis, if given a choice, would decide in favor of an army operation in the financial hub of the country to secure the nation’s economy and resume normalcy.
The reasons for growing anarchy in the country’s largest city are numerous, lack of commitment of the civilian administration to control violence being on top since the menace of target killing alone under their watch has consumed more than 1,500 lives in just a few months, and the patronage of armed militias by all political parties without any exception as a close second. However, among all, Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) has always been blamed for being responsible for most of the bloodshed in the city by almost all political parties across Pakistan, including those who do not have a stake in Karachi. Being the largest political organization in Karachi, it is understandable that the MQM, on the one hand, holds the maximum responsibility to bring harmony, while on the other, as the harbor of the (alleged) biggest militia, it poses a major threat to the peace process. Nonetheless, we hear a truce is not on their agenda at all. Evidently, the MQM has taken over the state apparatus to rig the elections, win every seat in the assemblies — both national and provincial — and become locally invincible without actually representing the majority. At the national level, their en bloc presence provides them leverage as the inevitable allies of every coalition federal government to negotiate on their terms regarding their supremacy in Karachi. With that power in hand, their party workers ‘extort’ millions of rupees in the name of political fundraising. As a result, this network of politicians and their supporters has made Karachi unsafe for everyone.
In these circumstances, some Pakistanis believe that a crackdown is not even an option anymore, it is a necessity. For them, those who attacked the rally of the Chief Justice in 2007 and killed more than 50 people in a few hours must be brought to justice. Those who burnt the supporters of the movement of the restoration of judges alive have to be brought to justice. Those who killed journalists in broad daylight have to be brought to justice. The rule of law must prevail. Even when explained, the complexity of the circumstances including the presence of the Taliban, the fragility of the democratic process and the political consequences of the collateral damage, they are ready to move forward with the use of force. They claim that our armed forces are fully capable of providing security to the citizens. With their counter-terrorism training and their experience in Swat, our army can essentially carry out an effective operation in any part of Pakistan to bring down terrorists.
If the same people are questioned about the situation in North Waziristan, the target killings of more than 500 Shiite Muslims in less than a year, the attack on Hindu temples, the desecration of Ahmedi graves, the killings of Christians, the suicide bombings in mosques during Friday prayers, the demolition of Sunni shrines, the slaying of children and the murders of women, most of them would conclude, without any hesitation, that army action is not the solution to all kinds of militancy. And it would push us deeper into extremism. The loss of innocent lives during the operation is too big a price for a nation to pay. Our military has already been stretched way too thin to get entangled in another task far away from its focus on the eastern border.
This dichotomy is simply called ‘living in a fool’s paradise’ because it encourages the use of force when the problem is purely political, like the one in Karachi, and can be solved with improved governance, while it anticipates to overpower an active insurgency with religious inspiration, like the one in Waziristan, through negotiations and expectations.
(The writer is a US-based freelance columnist. He tweets at @KaamranHashmi and can be reached at skamranhashmi@gmail.com )
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