Dr.Zulfiqar Mirza, a former home minister of the volatile Sindh province in the south, and a very close associate of President Asif Ali Zardari, rattled entire Pakistan on Sunday, Aug 29th resigning from all party positions and making a string of stinging allegations against the federal interior minister of being ‘hand-in-glove with criminals and murderers’, the fiery Mirza called the Muttahid Qaumi Party (MQM) ´ Karachilargest ethno-political party ´ as a ‘band of terrorists and criminals ‘ who, he claimed, were out to disintegrate Pakistan.
Mirza made several startling disclosures and leveled scores of allegations against the MQM and its self-exiled leader Altaf Hussein, who is meanwhile a British citizen but controls the party in Karachi.Mirza alleged that the MQM is a ‘black-mailing party that supports the American plans to break up Pakistan.’ He also resigned from all the party posts, saying he was fed up with the anti-state posturing of the MQM, which has continuously pressurized Zardari Pakistan Peoples– Party (PPP).
The outburst by Dr.Mirza, whose wife is the president of the National Legislature in Islamabad, has kicked up many questions, and also once again raised the specter of Pakistan largest city and economic life-line on the Arabian Sea descending into political and ethnic chaos. Mirza claims he can restore peace in days, while the MQM has rejected his allegations as ‘rubbish and baseless.’ The storm kicked up by Dr.Mirza, however, is not likely to subside by mere rebuttals. Nor will President Zardari find it easyto pacify passions within the party or outside in view of Mirza allegations against the MQM, which enjoys majority in the provincial parliament and also the largest party representing Karachi and Hyderabad, the second largest city of the Sindh province, in the national parliament.
In a late night reaction, President Zardari and other party members on Monday denounced Mirza outburst as his personal views and formally demanded an explanation from him, a signal that the ruling party is in no mood to antagonize the MQMthat holds the key to peace in Karachi, which is absolutely crucial for the country foreign trade.
Background
With a population of over 17million, including up to4 million Pashtoons (mostly migrants from the northwestern territories),and more than 2.5 million Punjabi settlers, Karachi makes an ideal arena for conflict, particularly when it is about protecting or expanding political and economic interests. Several ethnic groups reside in more than 100 areas of the city (the provincial police chief told the Supreme Court on Aug 29th).
The complex ethno-political and socially volatile nature of the mega-cityvirtually turns the city into a volcano that can burst any minute. What we witness in Karachi today is a combination of political interests and the war-fare among criminal gangs involved in extortions, bank robberies, land-grabbing, mercenary murders, and abductions for ransom (meanwhile a huge business).
Sick of crime and violence, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto had ordered a massive crackdown in the city between 1994-1996, resulting in arrests and deaths of hundreds of MQM leaders and activists. During the operation, the army and the civilian security agencies unearthed several torture cells and private jails run allegedly by the MQM.
Dozens of MQM leaders, including founder Altaf Hussein, and the current governor of Sindh, Dr.Ishratul Ibad, escaped to the Middle East and London, where they reorganized the party and brought it back into the Pakistani mainstream by striking an alliance with former dictator, General Pervez Musharraf. It was a new lease of life for a party that had been branded as an urban ‘separatist, fascist outfit living off reprisals, retribution, extortion and political black-mail.’
Nexus between Politics and Oragnised Crime
Let us first have a look at the city socio-criminal scene; law-enforcement agencies claim thataround 65 percent of bank robberies in the city can be tracedeither to various militant groups such as TTP, or the gangs that enjoy political patronage. During 2010, as many as 55 people were abducted for ransom, whereas these numbers rose to 422 until late August this year. The famous case of the kidnapping of Satish Anand, a famous Hindu film director, at the hands of pro-Taliban militants originated in Karachi. He was kidnapped in October 2008 in Karachi and released in April 2009 after the payment of a ransom amount of Ransom amount of Rs. 15 million (Zulfiqar Mirza now claims he made a five million contribution to the roughly 190,000 US dollars ransom for Anand). Another noteworthy kidnapping for ransom case by the militants was that of Shaukat Afridi, a transporter and businessman, who was kidnapped in Karachi and was killed in a rescue operation by the security forces.
Intelligence agencies as well as the police are privy to the operations of a number of gangs operating in the city but find themselves helpless; several considerations ´ fear of reprisal, self-interests, or even sympathies with a particular political party – nevertheless, prevent them from cracking down on politically influential, and socially networked gangs.
That is why, the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) established a crisis management cell in February (2011) to try and protect its members against the organised criminal groups. The Citizens-Police Liaison Committee (CPLC), dataindicates that criminal incidents average about 4,500 a day ´ compared to 2,500 in March 2010.Additionally, the less-publicised Sindh Home Minister telephone complaint centre has been receiving upto 60 complaints daily, most of them being reports on cases of extortion, kidnapping and police excesses.
Politically connected criminal gangsand mafia dons practically hold the city hostage. Running business without payments to one or the other gang, or establishing new business is practically possible without coughing up ‘protection money.
These gangs encroach upon government and private land, sell drugs and weapons and kill rivals. Often the assassinations of political activists ´ or even notorious gangsters ´ bring armed youngsters on the roads, who force shops and commercial centres into closure every now and then. Intimidation and death basically stalks the roads of Karachi, where , officials say, more than three dozen big gangs operate, most of them also in cahoots with religious militant outfits such as the Tehreeke Taliban Pakistan, and Afghan militants, who use Karachi as their purse.
Hostage to multiple Competing Interests
Karachi today is virtually under siege by a number of competing vested interests; ethnic political groups, militants, andpolitically connected criminal gangs ´ who haverendered the city 110 police stations virtually helpless. Wajid Durrani, the provincial inspector general police on Monday (Aug 29th) told the Karachi bench of the apex Supreme Court in a special hearing that the city police numbered about 32,000, out of which some 8000 were on deputed for duties with the VIPs (chief minister, ministers and official of similar rank). The year 2010 sawa 20%surge in crime i.e. from around 49,500 in 2009 to 59,000 . The number of killings as well as other crime has broken all records sofar, with themonth of August having been one of the bloodiest, when more than 100 people fell to the bullets of unknown assailants ´ also referred to as target-killers because most of those killed belonged either to the MQM or the ANP.
Police and intelligence categorize some 50% of murders as political, religious or sectarian killings. Statistics released by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan suggest that as many as242 people were killed in political strife in 2009 and 748 in 2010. The police put the total number of murders in 2009 at 801 and 1,339 in 2010.
‘Criminal-cum-political mafias remain not just locked in bloody turf-wars ´ which so far have claimed more than 200 lives in the first 25 days of August ´ they now hold the entire city hostage. The “easy money” for bands of criminals comes mainly through the vast extortion racket as well as robberies and kidnappings for ransom. Our trading and business communities ´ which remain the prime target of these mafias ´ can evade taxes in this land of the pure, but they have to pay hefty amounts to their tormentors as “protection money” in order to survive and run businesses,’ wrote Amir Zia in the daily The News (Aug 29th,2011).
Police officials say as many as 306 lives were lost to ‘target killers’ between July 24th and August 24th, a record for four weeks.
A day lost to violence or strikes in Karachi amounts to the loss of at least 50 million dollars. The city lost six working days in July and almost the same number of days in August, thereby severely affecting the commercial activity ´ import-export, industrial goods– production and their mobility as well as general trading.
Way Out ?
As a whole, Karachi represents an extremely daunting challenge because of the nexus between crime and politics. Police or other security agencies can do little if key members of the government serve as the cushion between law-enforcers and law-breakers ´ a phenomenon not typical to Karachi only, though. The nexus between crime and politics exists in other major cities of the country as well. Almost 75 criminal gangs in Baluchistan province,for instance,allegedly enjoy support of key political figures.
The volatile security situation in July-August also prompted calls by political parties such as ANP and Pakistan Muslim League as well as some several civil society organizations for a military operation. The para-military force called Rangers eventually moved into some parts of Karachisuch as Lyari and Sohrab Goth in the last week of August, arresting hundreds of alleged target-killers, and claimed to had recovered illegal arms and ammunition.
Dr.Mirza also underscored the need of a full-scale military operation to, what he said, cleanse the city of criminals.
This essentially means even the military can offer little solution in this situation. The army can serve as a big helping hand in cracking down on criminal gangs but prosecution of those arrested becomes a fish-bone in the throat. Can they be tried in military courts. What implications would such trials have, particularly when we have precedents of miscarriage of justice at the hands of summary military courts?
It shall have to be a combination of surgical military-led operations, effective and independent judicial process , and enforcement of the punitive measures decreed by the courts.In the larger context, Karachi represents a socio-political challenge and the answer also lies in a socio-political approach to its problems. Of absolute importance, however, is the enforcement of law i.e. certainty of punishment by judiciary ´ free of fear and possible intimidation by vested interest groups.Military or para-military, together with the intelligence apparatus can of course play a crucial role in this regard but the long-term remedy lies in political management.
Enforcement of the law – across the board ´ is therefore the key. While the military can take on criminal groups and neutralise them to a great extent with the help of the judiciary, it certainly cannot fight a war that essentially stems from interests rooted in politics. The turf wars among major political stake-holders i.e. MQM, Awami National Party (that represents ethnic Pashtoons) and the PPP, will come to an end only if these parties come clean on
- their connections with the criminal under-world, and
- their actions against one another followers (to stem the target-killings).
The explosive situation ´ that also flows from deep-seated mutual hatreds and dislikes ´ is political in nature and requires a politically-charted way out because a military operation primarily is an administrative measure in a city of highly polarized millions. Across ´the-board administrative measures can of course can arrest the spiral of violence but the long-term remedy lies in political means for issues that bear strong socio-political trappings. (Compiled with the help of the latest media coverage + excerpted from a CRSS backgrounder on theNexus between Organised Crime, Militancyand Politics)