KARACHI: Clearing Karachi of its crime syndicates and militant networks was never going to be anything less than an uphill task, one that required ‘heavy hitters’ to be brought in. Thus, when it was decided to launch the Karachi Operation in September 2013, the Pakistan Rangers, Sindh, were placed in charge of it, with the city police playing a supporting role.

Nearly a year on, Major General Rizwan Akhtar’s tenure as DG Rangers — which began in March 2012 — is coming to a close amid considerable debate over the operation’s outcome and conduct thus far, with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement in particular alleging that the paramilitary force, as well as former city police chief Shahid Hayat, were singling out its activists.

For his part, the DG describes himself as “very happy” at the progress that has so far been made, although he is relieved to be moving on. “Ever since I became major general I’ve been on command, I haven’t had a chance to relax. I like playing golf, but haven’t played a single day since the operation began.”

After nearly two years in Karachi, the first time that he’s been posted here in 33 years of service in the armed forces, he believes that notwithstanding its highly complex dynamics, there are three main problems that bedevil the city: political parties’ militant wings, the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan and the Lyari gangs, in that order.

Those who have been closely involved with Karachi’s law and order issues describe him as a reasonable man. “LEAs tend to protect their own turf, but the DG was very supportive of the public safety board that was proposed to oversee the operation,” says Jameel Yusuf, co-founder of the Citizens-Police Liaison Committee (CPLC).

“He didn’t want it to be tarnished by allegations of partiality and excess as the earlier ones had been. He even proposed that the members to serve on it should be apolitical, which shows his support for transparency and accountability. Unfortunately, the board never materialised as such an accountability process is not favoured by those in power, giving rise to doubts which needed to be avoided.”

In the words of Ahmed Chinoy, current chief of the CPLC, the DG is “the kind of person who, if he has concrete information about criminal activity, will go flat out, even putting his life on the line.” He adds wryly, “My policy, however, is not to specify political affiliations of those apprehended in raids because it can ignite a situation, attract accusations of partisanship and bring pressure from political quarters to release ‘their’ people.”

But human rights activists express serious reservations over the carte blanche they believe the operation — and the related anti-terror legislation — has given police and the Rangers to arrest, detain and use questionable means to ‘interrogate’ suspects. “The lack of accountability is our main concern,” says Zohra Yusuf, chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.

“There have been too many encounter killings, missing people and reports of torture. We accepted that something had to be done about Karachi but we don’t believe the Rangers are suitable for urban policing.”

“I don’t deny that some excesses have been committed,” says the DG. “But there is a procedure of dealing with them and if it is proved beyond doubt, I will take action. In fact, just two days ago, we sent one man to jail and one officer home for this reason.”

With the support of the federal government behind him, the DG had a reasonably free hand to conduct the operation in cooperation with the police. In the first few months, there was an appreciable decline in targeted killings as a whole, although sectarian murders continued largely as before. Now with the operation having nearly completed a year, the situation appears to have plateaued.

“True, our graph was going upward but in January it began to stagnate because the criminal networks started adjusting [to the limitations of the operation],” Maj Gen Akhtar says. Law and order has three vital pillars: arrest and apprehension; effective prosecution and due punishment.” (He describes sectarian killings as a complex phenomenon that has to be dealt with on various fronts and is not just a law and order problem.)

At the tail end of his posting in the Rangers, he contends that without massive improvements in the police and the criminal justice system, long-term improvements in the situation are impossible.

“Actions against hit men in Karachi have also been taken in the past by the Rangers. Then too, things improved for a few months, but then criminal gangs and their patrons started to adapt. They got the police to write weak FIRs so that they would get bail at the first hearing, threatened some judges, paid off others. This is a technical hitch and it is very real.”

His successor clearly has his work cut out for him.

Published in Dawn, July 29th, 2014