EVEN as the law and order situation in Karachi gets increasingly out of
hand dozens have been killed since the start of the weekend the reaction
to the sectarian violence that has flared up has been as inadequate as
the usual response to political violence in the city. When clashes erupt
between activists of ethnic or mainstream political parties, those
parties let a certain amount of bloodshed take place before they hammer
out a deal and then issue instructions to their workers or affiliates to
retreat.
While that process is taking place, law enforcement
appears to be at a complete loss as it sits back, taking only reactive
action, and waits for the politicians to sort out the mess. Meanwhile,
the interior minister blames mysterious and unnamed external forces.
As sectarian clashes now dominate the Karachi headlines, a similar pattern of response or lack thereof seems to be emerging.
In
this case it is the ulema who are issuing empty platitudes in public
while in reality being unable or unwilling to order their followers to
stop the bloodbath. Over the weekend the Milli Yakjehti Council met in
Islamabad not in Karachi, where a meeting of this particular
organisation, meant to promote cooperation across sects, would have sent
a strong signal against sectarian violence. And while it discussed
everythingfrom the role of religious parties in Pakistani politics to
unity of Muslims across the world to supporting the blasphemy laws, what
got lost in all this talk was the carnage taking place in Karachi,
which should have been thefocus of the meeting. A couple of days later,
the interior minister made the rather remarkable assertion that there is
no sectarian conflict in Karachi and that the recent clashes are being
carried out by `invisible forces`. He said this after another meeting of
the ulema again held in Islamabad.
The upshot of all this is
that officials and leaders appear to be doing nothing, leaving an
illequipped, poorly trained and understaffed lawenforcement structure to
react to incidents once they have already taken place. Putting in place
extraordinary Muharram security arrangements is a necessary step, but
that is only a short-term fix. What it will not improve is the
fundamental inability of law enforcement to tackle a problem that is
simply beyond its scope;even the army is now vulnerable to anti-state
groups, and the Rangers have demonstrated that they cannot fill the void
created by an undermanned and easily influenced police force. As long
as the ulema and the government fail to develop a more lasting political
solution, there is only so much any of these organisations can do
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