AS Karachi is sinking with the passage of every day, one of the main stakeholders in the city — MQM has undertaken a laudable initiative to enlist support of other players to help restore peace in the city of Quaid. Moving beyond rhetoric, an MQM delegation, led by Dr Farooq Sattar, met an ANP delegation in Islamabad on Wednesday in a bid to forge understanding on what should be done to improve the ever-deteriorating law and order situation in the metropolis.
Negotiations and parleys always pay and this was once again proved by the outcome of the interaction between the leadership of the two parties. It is encouraging that both MQM and ANP have agreed on the need to initiate indiscriminate and across the board action against criminals of all sorts in Karachi. This is need of the hour as Karachi has become almost ungovernable because of activities of terrorists, extremists, extortionist and land, drug and arms mafia. Many people lose their lives in the city daily in target killings while economy of the country is suffering hugely due to lawlessness in the commercial capital of the nation. No one knows Karachi more than the MQM that has highly systematic and organized working in the city and therefore, is in a better position to contribute meaningfully on how to restore normalcy. But it is also a fact that in a city where political and other forces are competing for greater influence, no single party can undertake the huge task of purging the city of criminals and crimes without active cooperation of other stakeholders. Therefore, the move of the MQM to secure cooperation of other parties is highly appreciable and we hope it would also establish effective contacts with other parties as well for the purpose. All stakeholders should get their acts together and work for peace of the city as break down of law and order would not be in the interest of any one of them.