Call to arm the youth (10082008)

Altaf Hussain, the founder and life-time leader (Quaid) of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), in a telephonic address, has called upon the youth of Karachi to arm themselves in the face of danger of Talibanisation. The apprehensions of the MQM Chief who resides in a posh London suburb and who has been away from the country for over 15 years for the reasons of personal safety has been contradicted by the Home Minister of Sindh government, Dr. Zulfiqar Mirza and the Chief Minister of Sindh, both the responsible elected representatives of the people, holding key posts in the government, see no justification for such alarming warnings.
Even if we were to accept the warning of the MQM chief at face value about the dangers of Talibanisation, the question remains is it the right course of action to ask the youth to take up the arms? What effectively MQM chief is asking for is for the youth to become recruits in a future civil war. The youth of the nation are the capital of our future and by enticing them to take up arms is in itself a highly controversial strategy to put it mildly. Besides, the MQM chief's assertion completely ignores some basic facts and ground realities.
Karachi is a city of over 15 million people, according to MQM claims of more than 20 million, of this population more than half is Urdu speaking, while the percentage of the students in the religious seminaries is very small by comparison. Therefore, even if there was a move to influence the citizens and life in Karachi by the extremist elements claiming allegiance to the religion, the move will at best be of nuisance value and not in any way strong enough as seen in tribal areas. Furthermore, Karachi has a strong presence of Army, Navy and Air Force personnel, as well as, Rangers, Coast Guards and Police, none of these support Taliban or MQM and are available to the government in any eventuality, therefore, arming of the youth can hardly be justified. In fact by arming the youth we will be placing them right in the middle of cross fire between the militants and the armed forces personnel.
As a matter of policy it has been proven over the decades all over the world that access to weapons increases the incidence of violence and violent crime. How long will it take for the desperate unemployed youth to use the gun purchased for the protection of the family for earning a living for himself and to support his family by resorting to crime? As has been witnessed in many parts of the country, once people adopt arms it is very difficult to disarm them. We already suffer from the introduction of drugs and gun culture in Karachi in 1980s, as far back as 1990, when Altaf Hussain was addressing another public rally in person, this one too in Clifton (where the latest telephonic address took place), he had exhorted the businessmen to take up arms in the face of fast deteriorating situation in the city. Eighteen years on, the MQM Chief still feels that the only way to solve social problems and conflicts is to take up arms by the civilians and by completely ignoring the state machinery.
One thing we have learnt from our repeated nightmares enacted on December 27, 2007, May 12 2007, in 1985, 1988 and on many other occasions in the history of Karachi and Pakistan over past six decades, including the periods of Pathan-Mohajir riots of 1960s, Urdu-Sindhi linguistic riots of early 1970s and the violence in the East Pakistan, that violence has never solved anything, nor has taking up arms, it has only led to more blood shed and deeper scars on the whole nation. The need of the hour is for the political leadership to sooth the nerves, calm the people and actually aim to disarm everyone to move towards a weapons free society. The reason we are facing threats of militants today is because of free use and display of weapons, this is the downhill course to an abyss from which the country needs to be pulled back.