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.
@Mota Panda:
No self promotion but you must first read my post about Salman Taseer and role of ‘right wing leftists’ which will help you to educate yourself a bit.
As far as a ban is concerned, unlike wannabe liberals I myself on this forum opposed fanaticism of all kind, be it by Right or Left or by Centers but problem is that leftist usually shy away to condemn the extremism in their own lot. This forum has various comments of mine condemning it but you will not find a SINGLE wannabe secular and leftist condemn the extremist of left and killing. That shows the hypocrisy. Instead of asking me, you should rather look yourself in the mirror and then ask your friends to condemn the extremist spread by lefts.
So, when are you going to come out of home and start preaching your liberal friends to eliminate the militancy in their own communities?
Mian, first clean the mess in your own backyard then ask me or someone else to do same. Preaching starts from home.
I am sure most would agree with me that ever since the day MQM came into being,Karachi has never remained at peace.It was a peaceful city up until 1985 and everything changed after that.
One solution is to launch a brutal crackdown on MQM’s underground terrorists who thrive on bhatta and blackmail to achieve their aims and goals.
I know it sounds blunt but sadly this is one practicable solution.
Some comments from ATP Facebook Page:
– “I was born in Karachi 1958 at holly family hospital very few things I remember 1964 war then some of thing I remember election between Fatima Jinah & Ayub Khan at that time I was almost 9 or 10 Karachi was booming then I remember 1971 war & after that again election & spilt of the country but Karachi was booming, corn ice cream, polka & igloo introduce to us again Karachi was booming at 3 in the morning I & my cousins boys & girls roaming around all over the city with out any hesitate then 1977 came & here we go again army rule a year later my dad told me that we are migrating to USA I was 20. Now our whole family in USA very proud Pakistani family & happy.
Now let’s go to your question about what you can do #1 law & order citizens looking for there on security has to be tough example China very tough. #2 education we need some good & quality teachers & train them, we lost the whole generation with no education #3 control the corruption it’s gonna be there but you can reduce it & that start from top to bottom #4 try to control poverty that’s killing us. Those just are my opinion I want my Karachi back please citizens of Karachi wake up you can do it & I know citizens of Karachi are smart & intelligent again you can take your city back.
Please do not offended. PEACE”
– “The unrest in karachi is not due to its common residents…they love each other…I remember going out even late after mid night to PIDC house from PECHS to enjoy pan…one felt peace all over….but that was many many years back……I feel the present unrest and target killings are the out come ofa political feud between the ruleing alliance….unfortunately it’s an ‘ OWNERSHIP ‘ issue of urban sindh especially Karachi…..some events of the past few years and loose statements like ‘Karachi Hamara He’ by some high ups of MQM have generated enemosity between militent wings of MQM and Pakhtoon ANP.The target killing victims belong to these two groups mostely…the worst part is that both groups deny having anything to do with the killings.
I feel this genocide will continue till such time MQM willigly gives political space to other ethnic communities who are living and working in Karachi as an economic and industrial hub……funny enough,there is no clash of jobs between the two cumminities….ANP is mejority ‘labour’ while MQM is ‘babu’ class.”
– “very well analysed !”
– “all over the Pakistan go into the hell fire…………start from Khyber.Pakhtunkwa………..end to Karachi…………. well done nice job by Pakistani rental security forces…………..killer of there nation and want to destroy Pakistan………………”
– “I would definitely stay in karachi, not london.”
– “Lutf got good chance to get shot, good luck to you Mr. Superman.”
@ShahidnUSA
Loved your comment, yaar. You ‘sting’ like a bee :-)
Everyone is a King in Karachi!
Seen that, been there, done it,faced it, lived it, heard it,sobbed it, felt it and left it.
Do you really want another King?
What you want is a Queen. Hey! Watch it!
By that I mean a real Queen. Who looks like a young Zeba(Urdu Heroin), talks like a Lucknow’s Diva and sting like a bee. She Who must be obeyed. It has worked in my family and it should work in Pakistan, whose more than a half of the population is poetic, monarchist and love fairy tales.
mmm, sounds like I just finished watching a movie about a speech slurred King. Let me come back on this.