The federal government has agreed in principle to form a parliamentary committee to monitor the ongoing operation in Karachi and ensure its transparency. PM Nawaz Sharif, who heads the National Apex Committee supervising the ongoing operation against the terrorists, extortionists and target killers aiming at bringing peace all over the country, is confident that the parliamentary committee will yield better results apart from ensuring complete transparency, the officials added. They maintained that the apex committee will take into confidence the proposed parliamentary monitoring committee regarding the arrests being made in Karachi, their possible affiliation with any political group and the allegations upon which the person is arrested. The government of Nawaz Sharif and the PML-N sought to calm troubled waters, and sent in the shock troops in the form of Maulana Fazlur Rahman in an attempt to bring the errant members of the MQM back into the parliamentary fold. The result is a commitment to form a committee that yes, will take all on board, pay attention to all stakeholders, particularly those with stakes poised over the vital organs of their opponents, and yes keep a watchful eye on the law-enforcement agencies to make sure that there was not a surfeit of disappearances, unexplained deaths in the night or the wanton extraction of fingernails in the course of interrogation. Whether this is going to be enough to persuade the MQM members to assume their seats once more remains to be seen, and given the yo-yo-ing of positions taken by the party, there is no guarantee that it will stay seated once back in parliament, Senate and the Sindh Assembly. The prime minister lacks a certain subtlety when it comes to dealing with other political parties, and is positively leaden-footed when it comes to dealing with an entity as capricious as the MQM. He assured the MQM delegation that “their genuine concerns” would be given serious consideration. Decoded, this means that the government will ignore those concerns that are either inconvenient or simply outrageous and attempt to lever the MQM members back to the legislatures via back-channel discussion. Much is at stake, and the political control of Karachi is the prize.
pk.shafaqna.com
