Having been detained for the last seven years and eight months, chief of Mohajir Qaumi Movement-Haqiqi (MQM-H) Afaq Ahmed has at last been released on the orders of the Sindh High Court. The decision has rendered the policy of political victimisation ineffective in Afaq Ahmed’s case who has been facing trial after trial in several charges of murder and abduction since April 2004 when the pro-MQM-Altaf government of General Musharraf ‘brought him in for questioning’. Afaq’s acquittal also demonstrates the relative independence that the institution of the judiciary has achieved after a long struggle with the executive. MQM-H’s chief has been released as the prosecution could not provide sufficient and adequate evidence against him in any of the cases. However, this latest political development will have some measure of impact on Karachi’s precarious peace, a city that is divided on several ethnic and linguistic fault lines. Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) is one of the major stakeholders in Karachi. However, it has been involved in clashes with its breakaway faction MQM-H, believed to have been created by the establishment in 1992. At the time, the government of Nawaz Sharif launched a cleanup operation against the MQM for its criminal and terrorist activities in Karachi and Hyderabad. Since the creation of MQM-H, Karachi has been witnessing intra-organisation factional feuds. In a turf war in July, the armed men of the two groups fought with each other and intensified the already battered law and order situation of the metropolitan. Now as the Haqiqi’s chief Afaq Ahmed has been set free, the chances of conflict and friction have increased once more. During Afaq Ahmed’s detention period, a large number of MHQ-H workers were killed. The MQM-H accuses the MQM-A of killing its members. Lust for revenge cannot be ignored. The situation calls for stringent security measures to be taken by the law enforcement agencies. The city has seen multiple spates of violence recently. What little peace in Karachi exists has been hard won. Pakistan’s intelligence agencies need to understand that an incendiary situation may be emerging. What remains to be seen is whether Afaq Ahmed will prove to be the flame that sets it alight or not. *