The Supreme Court (SC) is gripped with hearing cases after cases on the law and order situation in two important provinces of the country.
Balochistan and Sindh. Both the provinces have shown tremendous resilience in facing what is now called a breach of faith with the citizens of these provinces by their incumbent governments to provide them a safe and secure life. According to the fresh order issued by the SC, Karachi has taken a turn for the worse while the government is not doing enough to normalize the situation. In fact to the SC it is the mala fide intentions of the Sindh government that have brought the city to its knees.
Strongly criticising the performance of the police, the SC actually read an obituary on the latter’s state of affairs. Narrating the shortcomings in the force that has made it a pawn in the hands of those who want to rule the city according to their terms and conditions, the court rendered the force obsolete and excessively politicized. It is almost one year since the SC issued its order about depoliticizing the Karachi police, but no effort has been made in this regard. in fact the practice of out-of-turn promotion of officers to higher slots, transfers on personal contacts, lateral entry of officers from other departments and recruitment of police officers without merit has broken the back of the institution that was supposed to aid the government to maintain the rule of law in the city.
It is now a common belief that Karachi police is in the grip of the political forces. They are being used for the personal stakes of those in power and the institution has been reduced to a puppet that has no real value as far as autonomy or sense of purpose is concerned. Those who dare talk of law and legalities are considered stooges who should be left out of things. Registering his statement in the SC Karachi registry, the IG police confirmed the presence of 7,000 to 8,000 Taliban in Karachi. However, the chief did not mention if action has been taken to curb such a large force of terrorists.
The court has ordered the police to wake up from its slumber of ignorance and do something about the increasing Talibanization of Karachi that could further mar the peace and stability of the city. The SC has rejected the release of those undertrial prisoners (UPs) on parole nine years back. Still astonished over the act that was a sure recipe for annihilating the city’s prospects of peace, the court has ordered the issue of non-bailable warrants of arrest of the absconders.
PML-N has compared the situation in Sindh with that of Balochistan. By this analogy, say the stalwarts of the PML-N, the government of Sindh, like that of Balochistan, has lost every moral and constitutional ground to rule the province. When governments cannot protect their citizens, they lose the right to rule, says PML-N. Rebutting the analogy, the PPP has not only shaken off the burden of releasing the 35 UPs from its shoulders by calling it the doing of Musharraf’s government, but has categorized the reasons for violence in Karachi as entirely different from those of Balochistan, such as the land mafia, bhatta mafia and drug mafia.
As if the set of sins being different from that of the other would make the situation seem normal in one province and abnormal in the other. Naïve indeed. The reality however is that the government both in Sindh and in the centre has done little to improve the situation in Karachi. Giving in to political expediency has made the forces of evil in Karachi stronger and now it would take a tremendous amount of internal energy to clear the growing darkness in what was once called the city of lights. – Dailymail
