Karachi – From bloody to terror free

 

The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan recently visited Pakistan along with the country's financial hub of Karachi where he made some significant remarks. 

While referring to Karachi and its growing population, he said, “Planning not growing population is a problem. It’s a positive sign if city expands and people are coming," adding “you need to plan it, accordingly.”

We only allowed Karachi to grow in population, but never planned it and as a result, it became the syndicate of all criminal and terror activists. No one destroyed its economic and commercial hub like we did ourselves.

For someone like me, who had witnessed and reported on the worst violence, massacres and terrorism in Karachi in the last three decades, covered all three operations, from military-to-police, the one started in September 2013 was by far the most successful, despite some shortcomings. What led to this success, which areas have still not been addressed, and which, if not addressed, could again threaten the peace, will be seen in the following lines.

There was a time when even 'body count' in a day used to become a problem for journalists in the 1980s and 1990s, as they have always remained under pressure to meet the 'deadline’. Reporting has never been easy in Karachi, in the last three decades. Thousands were killed in ethnic, sectarian and political violence in a city, where there are still over four million 'aliens’ living.

Three major shortcomings include failure of policy of deweaponisation, arms and drug culture, lack of any strategy to control rising street crimes and the political will to recognise country's biggest city as a metropolitan city. No metropolis in the world had 13 civic agencies and a helpless city government as is Karachi’s. The city has never been 'owned' but only used.

While we do call city as 'mini-Pakistan’, successive rulers have treated this city with an ethnic outlook. What happened with the city and the province in the census is a case study in itself. With over 7,000 Katchi abadis, the city still provides safe haven to outlawed groups.

Politics and political engineering is another area, which had damaged city's political dynamics. Today, land grabbers with political and bureaucratic support are considered as a major threat, due to the way the city has been encroached upon.

All the abovementioned concerns were considered when the civil and military leadership reached a consensus to make Karachi terror-free. This will be a crucial phase to maintain the city as terror-free. Following are some of the reasons for its success in the last four years:-

Firstly, Karachi operation remained across-the-board unlike in the past. Secondly, it was more focused and intelligence-based, and thirdly, for the first time, it nearly broke the nexus between crime and terror, crime and politics and terror financing.

Over the years, many alleged criminals, gangs and land-grabbers had taken shelter in political, religious and sectarian groups. Many of them, because of their political influence, got jobs in police, not because they wanted to leave their criminal activities but to use the uniform for protection.

Another reason for the success of this operation had been the impact of the countrywide operation against outlawed groups and major offensives in North Waziristan. Karachi, once considered as a safe haven for militants, was cleaned up. But, war is not yet over, and it may still take years to make the country terror-free. Another challenge, and to me even the bigger challenge linked with terrorism, is the menace of extremism. If we fail on this front, sacrifices of thousands of soldiers, police, law-enforcement agencies (LEA) and civilians would go waste. I am afraid not much has been done on this front.

Former ISI chief Lt-Gen (retd) Rizwan Akhtar and the sitting ISI chief, Lt-Gen Naveed Mukhtar had served in Karachi and had a better understanding of Karachi's dynamics. This also helped in better coordination in the last three years. Besides, former DG Rangers and now chief of General Staff, Lt-Gen Bilal Akbar, also knows dynamics of Karachi better than many others.

Karachi operation success story also relates to the powers given to Rangers. For the first time, since Rangers had been invited during the first PPP government in 1989, it got policing and investigation powers, which contributed a lot to targeting terrorist and criminals.

However, all agreed that the metropolitan and professional police, and not Rangers, is a permanent solution to the city. Unfortunately, political will is not there as, instead of moving forward, we had returned to the days of 1861 Police Act. But, there have been some serious complaints of human rights abuses, an issue which has hardly been addressed.

One thing which can still hurt its operational side, as in the past, is political engineering, a glimpse of which witnessed recently in the case of MQM-Pakistan and Pak-Sarzameen Party (PSP). The agencies should not have any political domain and whenever they tried in the past, they had failed. This lesson need to be learnt. The apex committee needs to address this aspect and ensure that let political parties evolve their own discourse minus militancy. Free and fair elections can determine, who could represent Karachi. Make and break of political parties is not the mandate of any agency or purpose of the operation.

It is up to the people to decide their future representatives and political party. The Karachi operation must be confined to action against all militants and their terror financiers. Cases against them should not be pursued for political purposes, as such attempts in the past had failed. Judiciary has a decisive role in addressing these case on a fast pace, something missing during this operation. Prosecution too had been weak as there had been more emphasis on creating media hype instead of collecting evidence. The JIT or video confession had no legal value, but the authorities emphasis has remained more on politicising the issue rather seeking a conviction.

Credit for Karachi operation 2013 goes to all stakeholders, but it might not have been possible had the former chief justice of Pakistan Justice (retd) Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry not taken suo moto of the killings taking place between 2009 and 2011. The famous case called Karachi Badamni Case 2011, finally resulted in a well-coordinated operation. Another reason for success was the extraordinary powers given to Sindh Rangers, which despite its presence in Karachi since 1989, for the first time got operational and policing powers as well.

Th role of the former army chief, General (retd) Raheel Sharif was key to the success. Prior to the launch of operation he took all three major political parties i.e. PPP, PML-N and the MQM, on board that it would be across the board and at times could hurt their interest, but there should be no hue and cry, if at any stage action was taken against any leader or party activists.

There is also need to highlight the role of the police, which often been ignored or neglected in the operation. Whether it is under former IGP Jamali or sitting IGP AD Khwaja, or its CTD, they resolved some major cases of terrorism like Karachi airport attack, Safora Goth massacre of Sabeen Mahmood cases. Karachi operation was launched on two fronts: (1) against outlawed groups including sectarian and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, and (2) against alleged militant wings of political parties.

The operation against militants was the continuity of country-based operation, while in the case of MQM, the party was first informed and given time to clean up and close its militant wings. Complete data with names was also handed over to them. Later, they were also told about the presence of many of them in the adjacent houses of 90, Azizabad. Raid at 90, Khursheed Memorial Hall and adjacent houses conducted after MQM failure to comply the warning.

On the other hand, the Sindh government and the PPP had been asked to de-link its relation with Lyari gang war and Uzair Baloch. This was in the backdrop of use of this group against MQM and involvement in the killings. PPP also been told to improve its governance and control massive corruption.

Later, they were also warned regarding some cases of money-laundering as well.

According to some of the presentations given by former DG Rangers Lt-Gen Bilal Akbar, the major focus remained on alleged MQM militant wing as it considered as the most organised group, fully trained and having links with Indian intelligence agency RAW.

It followed by Lyari gang of both Uzair and Baba Ladla group. But, by the time he was promoted and transferred he expressed his satisfaction that their militancy has almost eliminated.

Gen Bilal was also convinced of the nexus between crime and politics, money-laundering and terror financing when it comes to certain officials linked with top PPP leadership. That was one of the reasons why he once mentioned the alleged involvement of Bilawal House.

The city with a population of over 20 million has come a long way to this position, wherein few months we will witness the final of PSL at the National Stadium, the first big event since the Sheraton blast, which resulted in the return of New Zealand team, which was staying in a hotel opposite to the blast site in 2002.

The writer is the senior columnist and analyst of Geo, The News and Jang.

Twitter: @MazharAbbasGEO

Note: The views expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Geo News, The News or the Jang Group

Originally published in The News