What Would You Do If You Were King of Karachi

Posted on January 21, 2011
Filed Under >Adil Najam, Law & Justice, Politics, Society
42 Comments
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Adil Najam

Karachi is at war with itself. Again.

Karachi bleeds, so does all of Pakistan. And Karachi bleeds too often. In a country that seems to be forever falling apart, the falling apart of this, the greatest of its cities, is both a sign and a foreboding. As painful as the daily killings and mayhem in Karachi is the sense that no one has any interest or any idea about what can or should be done. To be honest, I am not sure what I would do myself.

And so, dear readers, I turn to you: What would YOU do if you were made King of Karachi?

What realistic, practicable, and implementable steps would you do to deal with the perennial bouts of panic and death and destruction that this wondrous metropolis seems to be perpetually caught in? What would YOU do: in the short term? In the medium term? In the long term?

This question hit me hard when this morning I was talking over the phone with a rather influential Pakistan. In desperation I lambasted at how no one was doing anything. In equal desperation, he agreed. But then he asked me what could be done? What would I do? It was an honest question, not a cynical one. He was not making an excuse. He was searching for solutions. As am I. I have thought of this question all day and not come up with much. I do have some ideas. But they are vague and I wonder how practicable and realistic?

Hence, I reach out to you, dear readers. What would you do if you were made king of Karachi for a day?

Someone, desperately needs to come up with an answer. And soon. In the very first weeks of this blogs life (back in 2006) we had carried a post about why nobody in Karachi whistles anymore. We desperately need Karachi’s whistling days back!

True, this is a city that has never really been at rest. We have seen all of this, maybe even more, before. But any city – even one as resilient as Karachi – can only take that much restlessness. At some points its nerves have to give up. Distraught and in disarray, it has to scream out in anguish and hit out at itself. One wonders if we might already be beyond that point.

42 responses to “What Would You Do If You Were King of Karachi”

  1. Akif Nizam says:

    (my city) Karachi rated the six worst “livable” city in the
    world by the Economist.

    The Economist Intelligence Unit annually ranks cities based on a total of 30 factors including access to healthcare, culture and environment, along with education and personal safety in its survey.

  2. Unfortunately the solution is not as simple as some people have suggested in these comments.every body should see first his or herself..we need to rectify ourselves.

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