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.
ANP and PML ( N) would be a moral and rightful contended for power sharing in Karachi—the moment is shared power in running Peshawar and Lahore!!
MQM is the one and only truly democratic, un corrupted party which is the quint essential democratic voice of urban Sindh. Any contention against that key point is indefensible!!!MQM is the only party which can possibly offer any tangible and salvagable solution for Pakistan—if only people from rest of Pakistan could for a moment think beyond their baradari, zaat and tribes.
Bilawal Bhutto—a represenative from Lyari——that would be the sickest joke of current times—–
I would challenge any closet bigots to complete a single sentence without uttering the following key words torture chambers, Jinnah Pur, mafia, don, bhutta, ethnic ………………………these have all been proven fabricated by none other than by their own moles from Army, ISI and MI.
Arrest all MQM leaders/members and drown them in Karachi sea…
@ Zaheer
The laws which you want to be introduced are almost all already in place. Its the reluctance of their implementation which has led Karachi to its present state.
@ Anna
Your steps are in the right direction and should be taken with sincerity and impartiality.
First of all, Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) had given the formula of town planning centuries ago. He said “when the population of a city exceeds a certain limit, then develop new cities.” And if you think calmly, you will realize that we can avoid almost every social evil by having smaller or moderate sized cities where implementation of laws is much easier.
But at the same time every stakeholder must realize and sincerely accept that Karachi being a port city is the hub rather magnet of economic activity. And like any other port city (New York, Mumbai, Sydney, Auckland, Tokyo, Shanghai, Jeddah, Barcelona, Izmir) Karachi is a natural attraction for employment seekers. What could have done was to develop a new port city in 70s, but at a fair distance from Karachi like Gawadar (not like proposed Zulfiqarabad which would only add to the miseries of Karachi). But Political interests always kept the decision makers from forming new cities and we are facing the aftermath of such disastrous negligence.
But even if the government could not develop a competitive city, any stakeholder of Karachi can neither place claim of ownership of the city nor can take verbal or practical step towards stopping others from entering and residing in the city. Why? Because it is a natural flow of population all over the world.
Its only the struggle of controlling the city and its residents which has resulted in unending violence. MQM does not tolerate any person from any part of the country to emigrate to Karachi for the fear of loss of political grip. Be it Swat IDPs or flood affectees, MQM wilfully and strongly resisted the poor victim of the disasters to find even temporary refuge with their relatives in Karachi.
And by the same logic, it is the MQM’s contempt for ethnic communities including Pathans, Balochis and Sindhis that instigates fearful violence. My own cousine sent me an SMS which depicts how much eccentric MQM has become towards so called OWNERSHIP of the city.
Doodh mango ge to kheer den ge
Karachi mango ge to cheeer den ge
Second issue is the deployment of loyals of political parties in police. Virtually, the whole of police party in most of the stations are actually political workers. How can you expect rule of law in such a situation? On May 12, 2007 we clearly saw that police vehicles were used to transport arms and ammunition to be used by one or more of warring fractions.
Third issue is, believe it or not, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari. His father wishes him to be elected from Liyari in the upcoming elections and to this purpose, the scheme is to eliminate the loyalty of Loyariites towards local leaders and current representatives.
SOLUTION???
Karachi will have to pay (heavily) for peace and tranquillity if its residents do not rise above the political and ethnic affiliation. Suspension of authoritative powers of Karachi police and placement of paramilitary forces as overseers in police stations would be the first step in the right direction.
Second step will be to deploy military around the city under the command of military itself. Simultaneously, a clear and impartial warning be given to ALL fractions to submit weapons of any kind. A deadline of 10-15 days would be sufficient.
And finally, not as an option, but as the vital step, a tight curfew and door to door operation clean up be carried out just like ploughing a field by tractor. The weapons, their users and those who harbour them must be taken away from Karachi. This is inevitable, if you want peaceful political and economic activity, the mess has to be cleared as a pre-requisite.
I know that it will result in bloodshed, suspension of social and economic life and rationing of food items by household for some days or weeks. But after supporting militant politicians (from every fraction) for so many years, this is the price Karachi has to pay for peace.
Even after the operation clean up is over, a full brigade of army must be deployed permanently on the entry points and other locations for preventing arms and ammunition from entering the city.
The issue of professional killers coming from South Africa is no big deal. Vigilance, surveillance and Interpol can easily dig out these criminals.
Local body elections be held after the mess has been cleared. And it will then be Karachiites’ responsibility to reject militancy and elect clean, faithful and educated representative among themselves.
But none of above can be possible, productive or efficient if there is no political will. Reconciliation (the filthy political cover of this government) will not yield positive results for economy and people of Karachi and Pakistan. Iron clad militancy has to be dealt with iron fist otherwise, in next 5-10 years, I see Karachi as a new Hong Kong (in political terms of pre 1997 arrangement) under US or UN control.
If I were the king for a day ….
I would give the entire control of Karachi in the hands of people who have been voted unanimously. consecutively and unambiguously ( for the last 25 years) by the very citizens of Karachi.
No ifs, ands and buts—anyone dissapproving with MQM’s being the single and respresentative voice of Karachi is a clost bigot and actually supporting land mafia, drug dealers and a fanatic.
I will arrest all the men who ogle at women.