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Youths enjoy a camel ride as the sun sets in Karachi, Pakistan on Saturday, Dec. 31. Pic: AP.

New Year’s in Karachi: The social divide deepens

By Ahsan Butt Sun, Jan 01, 2012 9:34PM UTC View Comments

I spent New Year’s eve at a friend’s house. Luckily for me, this friend lives less than a five-minute drive from where I live, and that drive is on two fairly main roads. Many of Karachi’s residents, of course, did not quite have freedom of movement last night. The authorities made sure to block almost...

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HRCP exposes Karachi’s ‘unholy alliances for mayhem’

By Pakistan Voice Sun, Oct 09, 2011 4:46PM UTC View Comments

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), the country’s main human rights watchdog, has released report of its fact-finding mission to Karachi and called for depoliticisation of the police department and disbanding of armed militant wings of political parties. It recommends that mainstreaming and integrating all communities in Karachi is vital because of the multi-faceted polarisation of...

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Pakistan: Did the Karachi operation ‘work’?

By Ahsan Butt Fri, Oct 07, 2011 4:27AM UTC View Comments

It’s been six weeks – 44 days to be precise – since the Rangers and police operation in Karachi began. You will recall that the operation, as it were, was the last desperate throw of the dice by a government unable to stem the flow of violence in Karachi. Earlier this week, we learned that...

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The difference between Karachi and the Tribal Areas

By Ahsan Butt Thu, Aug 25, 2011 12:13PM UTC View Comments

Without being too presumptuous, it’s fair to say that most readers of this blog share my belief that sending the Army into Karachi to quell the violence there would be absolutely disastrous. Furthermore, it’s also perhaps fair to say that most readers of this blog believe, as I do, that the military’s heavy-handedness in Balochistan...

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Recent data on terrorism and violence in Pakistan

By Ahsan Butt Thu, Aug 11, 2011 3:15AM UTC View Comments

The PIPS monthly report for July is out. You can read it here. The basic story is that drone strikes were down, there was no major terrorist attack in Punjab, attacks on government installations and educational institutes decreased — and yet there was an overall increase in violence. This increase arrested the trend over the...

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