The death toll has risen to 200 plus in less than a month in Karachi. A recent report by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) reveals that 1,138 people were killed in Karachi in the first six months of 2011, of whom 490 were victims of political, ethnic and sectarian violence. Karachi is the financial and commercial capital of Pakistan. It has a 20 percent share in the country's GDP.
A PricewaterhouseCoopers study released in 2009, which surveyed the 2008 GDP of the top cities in the world, calculated Karachi's GDP (Public Purchasing Parity) to be $78 billion (projected to be $193 billion in 2025 at a growth rate of 5.5%). It confirmed Karachi's status as Pakistan's largest economy, well ahead of the next two biggest cities Lahore and Faisalabad, which had a reported GDP (PPP) in 2008 of $40 billion and $14 billion, respectively.
In addition, Karachi accounts for approximately 53.38 percent of the total Federal Board of Revenue collections, out of which 53.33 percent are customs duty and sales tax on imports. Karachi also produces 30 percent of value-added in large manufacturing. What is mind-boggling is that a 2007 World Bank study rated Karachi as the most business-friendly city in Pakistan. In short, each day that the violence in Karachi brings the city to a virtual standstill costs the country's economy and the Treasury a huge amount while the daily wagers simply do not get paid. Something needs to be done on an emergent and, need one add, a more permanent basis than has been evident in the past.
Who, the question keeps resurfacing, is responsible for these killings? Who could be so cruel as to torture the victims before abandoning their bodies willy-nilly? And who could be so inhumane as to shoot indiscriminately, killing even the poor forced out of their houses in search of food and water for their families? The answer differs based on one's political associations. The MQM has openly accused the PPP and particularly the former Sindh Interior Minister Zulfikar Mirza of being behind the Amn Committee, which the party alleges, is engaged in targeted killings. The PPP blames the MQM for the reign of terror in Karachi. The ANP and MQM blame each other and there are also elements in the country who blame the hidden hands (a euphemism for the security agencies) for the recent shootings. To further muddy the waters, ethnic violence is accompanied by what is clearly sectarian violence and one has a city that is in a proverbial vortex with nowhere to go but down towards its demise unless urgent remedial measures are taken.
Rehman Malik, the Interior Minister, has presented a number of reasons for the Karachi violence that range from the usual (Taliban/foreign country/third party is responsible) to the ridiculous (girlfriends and wives are responsible for 70 percent of the killings in Karachi) to vaguely alluding to "elements" trying to sabotage peace in Karachi under the garb of ethnic violence. Irrespective of whoever Malik verbally accuses of the killings in Karachi, his normal response has been to scurry to closed door meetings with Karachi's key political players. However the resulting deals have been short-lived at best. In other words, the way the Karachi imbroglio has been tackled so far has simply not worked. Rangers have been deployed and police raids have been carried out with several arrests, yet the killings have continued.
There is a consensus that the land mafia, the bhatta collectors, the unsavoury criminals are all engaged in violence, though there is a difference of opinion as to which political party is protecting them. HRCP in a statement noted that "Karachi is in the grip of a multi-sided wave of insecurity-driven political, ethnic and sectarian polarisation that has greatly undermined its tradition of tolerance and good-neighbourliness. While gangs of land-grabbers and mafias have tried to exploit the breakdown of law and order, they do not appear to be the main directors of the horrible game of death and destruction; that distinction belongs to more powerful political groups and it is they who hold the key to peace."
Sharjeel Memon, the Sindh information minister, said "The peace initiative is still continuing and all the stakeholders are on board for this." One would assume from this comment that the genie, unlike in the case of al Qaeda's close relations with the CIA when the then Soviet Union forces were occupying Afghanistan, is not perceived by the government to be out of the bottle yet. Events on the ground prove otherwise. The time has come to give a deadline to the political parties to deal with their recalcitrant members, however in case of failure the government must escalate its engagement in policing activities.