Everybody knows that only solution to rid Karachi of terrorism and crime is ruthless application of law with no consideration given to any criminal. Organized street crimes, extortion, torture cells, planned target killings, land mafia and kidnapping for ransom started in Karachi in the 80s, long before there was any sign of ‘Taliban.’ Zia ul Haq left a legacy of drugs, weaponization, heinous crimes and massive corruption in this country, while Ayub Khan set the pace for despotic military dictatorship in this country, laying foundation for chaos, institutionalized corruption and mayhem in our cities and towns. Instead of learning from our mistakes we have resorted to brutal distortion of truth and history, concealing facts and giving space to crooks within our political elite and paid civil or khaki bureaucracy to assume a role in politics of this country, taking control of its economy and the cardinal sin which any society can make, abandoning vision and principles of our founding fathers.
Karachi and the economy of this country bleeds because we have allowed crime to flourish and black economy to be patronized by those who hold power, having sworn to uphold the constitution, yet doing everything they could to hold it in abeyance, making laws slave to whims of crooks and criminals. We are being made to believe that there were no missing containers; next perhaps we may be forced to accept that night vision capable weapons are manufactured in FATA. Any journalist who dares to expose truth is hounded by known warlords of this city.
Just take recent reports involving a lady anchor and columnist of a weekly magazine, who dared to expose the doings of those who claim to have a mandate to represent; instead they have assumed the role of ‘Mafioso’. Yes Taliban have now become part of the problem, and there will be many more such criminals, given the assured tax free billions made by the booming criminal economy of financial hub of Pakistan. You don’t need a consensus to enforce writ of law, or punish murderers, kidnappers, extortion collectors, land grabbers, just enactment of a laws enabling Terrorist Courts to convict criminals with forensic and intelligence evidence available, since no witness will dare to come forth seeing the fate of men like Wali Babar.
MALIK TARIQ ALI,
Lahore, September 9