Karachi Bleeds Again: Will Sanity Prevail?

Adil Najam

Civil society activists in Karachi had welcomed the new year in style: with rallies for peace. This was not an act of naivety. It was an act of hope. More than that it was an act of defiance. Defiance against the reality of violence that has become our daily fate. As Karachi spirals, again, into violence. That defiance is being tested, again. Today, more than ever before, those who stand against violence, must continue to stand against violence.

Violence has, once again, gripped the metropolis with gusto. Politicians are at pains to tell us that the nature of violence in Karachi today is not the same as it has been up North. They are correct. But blood on the streets is blood on the streets. He who dies of ‘political’ violence is no less dead than he who dies of extremist terrorism. The senselessness of the one is no less senseless than the other.

In each case, it is Pakistanis who die, Pakistanis who cry.

Karachi, of course, has never been a stranger to the curse of violence.

Just over a year ago, I had started a post with a similar headline with the sentence: “Karachi used to be called ‘the city that never sleeps.’ It may as well now be called ‘the city that forever bleeds.'” But the fact is that while Karachi is a city that lives always on the edge, it had been relatively less volatile than many other parts of the country. Given its size, composition, politics and history, it is a place where violence can unravel fast and spreads faster. That is exactly what has been happening this last week.

In horror and in pain, one has watched the legendary resilience of this great city being tested yet again by the forces of violence. The news today – with all major parties in the city talking about reconciliation and restraint – gives one some cautious hope. But more than on any statement from any political party, we must invest our hopes in the ordinary citizens of this glorious city. Sanity will flow not from the political calculations of the parties, it will flow forth from the same sentiments of defiance that had brought out civil society in the city on new year’s day.