Amir Zia, a Karachi based freelance columnist, wrote a fantastic Op-Ed piece in today’s The News. I have posted the entire article for your consumption… to be honest, I fully agree with Amir in this article…

Should the May 12 mayhem in Pakistan’s financial hub of Karachi surprise those experts and analysts, who understand the dynamics of this city and follow its events and developments closely? The restive port city already has a long bloody history of political, ethnic, and religious violence. And all the major factors, which wrecked its peace in the past, continue to besiege and threaten the civil society even today.

In fact, the failure of the state and the political forces to resolve and address Karachi’s lingering social, economic, political and administrative problems has made this city far more unmanageable and ungovernable than it was a decade ago. Karachi of 2007 has all the inherent contradictions, which have the potential to transform any given political and even non-political issue into something deadly and explosive. In the present times, now it is more a question of when will violence start in Karachi rather than why and how?

Therefore, one should not wonder why the issue of the suspended Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry’s planned rally became a “fairly valid excuse” for various political interests and ethnic groups to demonstrate their power and stamp authority on various localities of this teeming mega-city.

In doing this, these forces not just underlined the deep polarisation of our times, but also exposed the vulnerability and helplessness of the law abiding ordinary citizens, who had nowhere to go, nowhere to turn to for security and protection as parts of Karachi plunged into lawlessness and chaos.

The ferocity and scale of the May 12 armed clashes between militants belonging to the rival groups undoubtedly appeared to be a rerun of Karachi’s violence-plagued days of the early and mid-90s. The signs were more ominous as rival bands of militants were able to demonstrate their firepower in some of those localities, which traditionally remain immune to this kind of street fighting.

The new factor of live-coverage by private television channels fuelled more uncertainty, stirred passions and instilled a deeper sense of fear in the hearts and minds of the people. Thanks to the non-stop television reporting of the day’s gory events, the billowing smoke, the armed militants, and the blazing gunfire were right inside our houses — from one corner of the country to the other — shattering the much-laboured myth that Karachi has transformed into a peaceful and business-friendly city.

For a better understanding of the situation amid all the heat and dust of allegations and counter-allegations by the rival political parties, it is pertinent to review and register some of the bitter facts, which the tragic events of May 12 reasserted and highlighted.

The foremost worrying issue that emphatically manifested itself again was the open display and use of lethal small arms. May 12 has clearly demonstrated that Karachi continues to remain one of the most heavily armed cities of Pakistan where all the political and religious parties, interest groups, and the crime mafias are armed-to-the-teeth and ready to shoot and kill at the first opportunity. This failure of the state to disarm the non-state players — even in major cities — is the biggest threat for peace and stability in Pakistan’s financial and industrial heart. The government needs to critically review why the anti-weapon drives of the past failed to deliver.

The second bitter fact is that the onus of triggering violence cannot be thrown at the doorstep of this or that political party alone. Supporters of the government as well as the opposition were both armed and fought pitched battles in various parts of the city. All the political players stand guilty of violence on that particular day. The larger the group, the bigger was its reach and fire-power.

Another troubling factor was the inability of the law enforcement agencies to deal with this crisis-like situation. Despite all the visibility of the police and paramilitary rangers during normal days, they are found wanting when needed the most — either because of political expediency or operational weaknesses. The government needs to probe both these aspects in detail.

The present crisis has also exposed the sad fact that our political parties — be they in the government or the opposition — are not yet ready to act and express themselves in a mature manner. They remain focused on stoking emotions and adding more fuel to the raging fire. A big majority of our politicians seem to go to any length to score a tactical point and embarrass opponents. The bigger picture, the long-term impact and the consequences of rash words and careless actions seem to be nowhere on their minds. The stream of harsh, provocative and violent statements being issued in the aftermath of the Karachi carnage demonstrate that politicians are not prepared to learn from the past and remain bent upon aggravating the situation.

If the current momentum of confrontationist politics continues, it will prove fatal for the existing system and dangerous for the country. With the next general elections round the corner, it is high time for our political parties and institutions to back-off from the politics of brinkmanship. Our politicians should practically demonstrate that they care for human lives and are sensitive to the suffering and plight of the masses. They should prove with their words and actions that they follow the norms of democracy rather than just paying lip-service to this cause.

The lawyers’ community, campaigning in favour of the suspended Chief Justice, also needs to review tactics, which are transforming a purely legal issue into a political one, creating law and order problems in an already volatile environment. The fate of the suspended Chief Justice has to be decided in the court, not on the streets. Judges, anywhere in the world, are not supposed to lead rallies. The suspended Chief Justice could have gone and addressed the bar in Karachi without trying to lead a rally in a city, which is now notorious not just for its history of violence and terrorism, but also for its traffic jams. The government’s offer to take the Chief Justice to the bar was there, but sadly it was turned down — underlining the fact that each and every player wanted a showdown regardless of the human price and turmoil in the battered city called Karachi.

Lastly, the latest bout of violence, though linked to the suspended Chief Justice’s attempt to lead a rally, slid into ethnic rivalry, manifesting the deep schisms in this multi-ethnic and multi-cultural city. In the past, Karachi paid a heavy price of ethnic rivalries, which eased following the Muttahida Qaumi Movement and the Awami National Party who managed to find common ground to maintain peace, benefiting all the communities and ethnic groups living in this city. These two forces have to redouble efforts by joining hands with other political parties to maintain harmony not just between the Urdu-speaking and Pashtun communities, but all the other ethnic groups including Punjabis, Sindhis and Balochs. Karachi belongs to all of them and they should all go an extra-mile to ensure peace in the city. It is the time to be sensible and rational, not emotional and reckless. This is the only way to serve the people and the country.

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