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.
Dismantle MQM.
King of Karachi
Well i am assuming that I am akbar, or aurangzeb and not Bahadur Shah Zafar
All citizens of the city
Every gas station in the city is turned into his majesty governments office providing following three services
Registration of the citizens
Registration of all the vehicles
Recruitment of Volunteer citizens to join the Kings Army to clean up the city
Royal decree
All the citizens of Karachi are requested to visit one of these gas stations and obtain the above documents with in 30 days
After expiration of thirty days ( exception for people of frail health and old age) all those that do not have the registration will be considerd non citizens and ordered to leave or can be punishable by death
All vehicle similarly be taken out of the premises of the His majesty’s government
the volunteer army meet in the center of the city and spread out in the concentric circle outwards to the boundary and displace, evict, shoot , arrest all that are encountered without the documents . ( it may turn into fallujah , for that his majesty’s Army will be available )
Once the clean up reaches the outermost circle , it remains there and moves in installing cameras at all roads. till it reaches the center where there is a monitoring cell .
what the king will do next will depend upon if the ” Awam ” than pledge allegiance again
@ Zaheer Ahmed
your Suggestions are well taken by me ( If I would be the one Day Queen of Karachi )
if only our Rulers , Army Intelligence Agencies & civil Administration were only HALF as sincere as we are to our Motherland all problems could have been solved years ago !
As a king I have authority of taking any action. Following are the 10 order which would be effective immediately if i become king which is apparently impossible :)
1. I will give a deadline of 15 days to Karachiite to withdraw their weapons to nearest police station along with personal identification.
2. 3 year prison and 300,000 fine in case of any arm(old legal or illegal) recovered after deadline by security forces. Security guards standing at the banks/offices/shopping center are not allowed take their guns at home it must be submit to their corresponding security company.
3. if someone want to obtain legal weapon his age must be above 23 year. An application be given at town administrator and license along with weapon would be issue only if the requirement of weapon is genuine. You have to pay license fee and the cost of pistol.
4. You are not allowed to bring any weapon into city whose license issued from outside the territory of Karachi.
5. Anyone above 18 year must keep NIC and it must be shown upon request by security agencies.
6. Double Sawari on motorcycle would be allowed. Driving without License, Vehical registration document and Authority letter would be compulsory or else 6 month prison along with RS: 100,000 fine. In case of no fine additional 6 month prison
7. Any Vehical e.g. Truck, Car, Motorcycle entering city must have their entry registration and have to notify at the time of leaving (at Tool plaza of Highway)
8. It is the responsibility of property owner to ensure their registration at nearest town office about persons living on rent
9. No political allowed to organize rally on roads e.g. MA Jinnah Road etc etc. They are allowed to do their political rally, speeches at specific place with exception for Ashura day Jaloos at specific route.
10. Brining weapon at worship place/educational institute is not allowed. “Hawai firing” at any celebration/festival e.g. marriages, new celebration is not allowed.
We all know that MQM is one of the key components behind these target killings and all….including media, police, politicians are afraid of their killers. Who can forget 12 may 2007 and April 2008. We all saw what they do on TV. Finishing off MQM which is a mafia is first step in restoring peace in Karachi.