It seems that the law enforcement agencies have found all the reasons for the mess in Karachi. Thousands of arrests, blunt pressers and hundreds of joint investigation reports claim the reason to be MQM, the second largest political party of Sindh and the nominated party of Karachi.
As a Pakistani, I firmly believe what our law enforcing agencies state. However being an educated citizen of Karachi, I do need logic to understand what’s wrong with my city. I went through dozens of interrogation reports of political activists arrested in Karachi and found out one common factor in all of them. None of the reports were presented nor proved in the court of law and instead they were issued to media for creating a certain height of hype and propaganda against one political party.
The recent incident that comes to mind is the arrest of Mr. Amir Khan, a senior member of MQM, from the party’s head office known as “Nine Zero” in Karachi and the statement of Sindh Rangers claiming involvement of Mr. Khan in heinous offences, was turned down by the Anti-Terrorism Court. Mr. Khan was released on bail after over 100 days of detention. “Poor investigation resulted in the acceptance of bail application of Mr. Khan”, the court commented. The number of statements on behalf of Mr. Khan were aired on national media confessing his involvement in number of offences and the biggest one of harbouring terrorists at the party’s head office.
People who are familiar with the working of the intelligence and law enforcement agencies shall agree that the investigations and the statements of the accused are kept secret and by law, it is the property of the court. Another important thing to note is that confessional statements have no value whatsoever unless they are recorded in the presence of a magistrate.
Serious question which our media intentionally misses out is “How these statements ended up on media”? Obviously some sources within the law enforcement agencies are providing these sensitive information to the world outside, but did the law enforcement agencies investigated or took action against any such sources. The answer is unfortunately “NO”.
The active role of law enforcement agency on the media is not the solution of the mess in Karachi. The intense crimes and terrorism in Karachi provide that the real culprits should be brought to justice while taking the legal course. The Pakistan Protection Act provides leverage to the law enforcement agencies to detain and investigate any suspicious individual/group. However, the law bindings according to the Human Rights must also not be violated. The interrogation reports should be presented in the court of law and must be prosecuted accordingly to provide justice instead of leaking them on media and damaging the sensitive information.
The time needs our loyal law enforcement agencies to play a positive, pro-active and non-political role for making Karachi the city of lights. The brutal criminals of banned outfits which are on the verge of destroying Pakistan must be taken care of. Investigation reports must be submitted in the courts instead of being discussed in the media. Law enforcement agencies should also be made questionable on their performance. Karachi must see peace, but not at the verge of torture, extra judicial killings and mutilated bodies.
