Karachi: At War with itself

Karachi, the capital of Pakistan at its inception in 1947, and the birthplace of the country’s founder, Jinnah, has been on the boil for years. But today, Pakistan’s only commercially operational port and its financial capital which earns half of Pakistan’s otherwise meagre revenues, is a city at war with itself, a boiling cauldron of a seemingly permanent ethnic divide where not only rival political or religious leaders but even ordinary citizens are picked up for extortion and torture and subsequent death by rival gangs, often merely for the dialect they speak or the dress they sport, say a Mohajir wearing trousers or a Pashtun wearing the salwar-kameez!

By conservative estimates, the city has had this year alone, over 1200 casualties in fratricidal warfare among its citizens, making Karachi one of the most dangerous cities in the world. Karachi, thus, unmistakably mirrors the true state of Pakistan   at the crossroads of its destiny, in a violent downward spiral with its very existence at stake   all attributable to the myriad inherent contradictions which it has not been able to resolve since 1947.

Karachi had a population of 4.5 million at the time of independence in 1947, mostly Sindhis, Balochis and a fair number of Hindus, Parsis, Christans. Partition sent out of Karachi lakhs of Hindus and Sikhs, many rich and well educated, and brought to Karachi, a very large number of Urdu speaking Muslims from India   their descendants derisively referred to as Mohajirs (refugees) even now. Subsequently a large number of Pashtuns after they were driven away from Afghanistan, especially after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980’s also settled here over the years. To this ever increasing and diversifying demographic melting pot, many Balochis, Punjabis, Serakis, Memons, Bohras, Ismailis, Iranians, Bengalis, some Central Asians and even Rohingya Burmese Muslims were added, its population touching over 18 million with all the attendant problems of a city bursting at the seams.

Land grabbing, extortion rackets, drug smuggling, money laundering, illegal arms trading, acute political and ethnic divides, gang wars and countless crimes became a daily routine. Governance and policing have been given short shrift and Karachi remains a tinderbox which explodes with near-daily fury consuming mostly ordinary citizens and occasionally, rival political leaders. Even hospitals and ambulances do not tend to the injured if the ethnicity of the patient is not compatible with where a hospital is located!
Ghettoisation of Karachi is thus complete and scary for most of its ordinary citizens.

The very rich and powerful stay in the swanky Clifton or the Defence Housing Board districts protected by private armies and the poor in narrow filthy streets and decrepit houses at the mercy of rival gangs with their torture cells. Islamist terrorists of many hues live in relative comfort in safe houses in Karachi including the likes of the ISI-patronised Dawood Ibrahim who reportedly may have now shifted base to safer climes after Osama Bin Laden’s killing.
The major reason for Karachi’s overflowing morgues is unanimously attributed by its residents and security officials to the “politicisation of crime or the criminalisation of politics.” The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), led by the London based Altaf Hussain (who has not visited Karachi for the last 20 years though and was accused earlier of being an Indian intelligence agent) which represents the rights of the Mohajirs was founded in the mid-80s and held complete sway over Karachi for years with its gangs extorting, on an institutionalised basis, money (locally referred as bata) from most businesses in Karachi.

However, the swelling number of Pashtuns in Karachi who owe their political loyalty to the Awami National Party (ANP) have been resenting this and in collusion with the ruling coalition at the centre, namely Asif Zardari’s Pakistan’s People’s Party (PPP), have been fiercely demanding their piece of the cake in the extortion and political largesse of Karachi for themselves. The ANP and PPP patronise Balochi and Pathan criminal gangs and thus many businesses in Karachi have to pay protection money to all the three rival groups!

Ironically, the MQM which still holds 17 out of the 20 parliamentary seats in Karachi was supporting the ruling PPP coalition at the centre till 2009 before they fell out with each other. Serious political differences continue between the MQM and the PPP exacerbating the volatile situation in Karachi. To this deadly cocktail the Taliban and some religious extremists are fanning the Sunni-Shia divide and contributing to Karachi’s growing woes with the state having lost its writ in the city.

The ever deepening faultlines of Karachi need speedy and fair redressal by the Pakistani state. Discarding political vendettas and patronising by the leading political parties of criminal gangs for partisan ends, establishing sensitive and humanitarian governance by the federal and the Sindh governments and re-establishing governance in this strategic city is the crying need of the hour. The vital supply lines to Afghanistan for the US troops commence from Karachi and their rupture thus worries Pakistan’s current financial and strategic mentors, the US, no end. The entire foreign community stationed there too feels endangered with near daily violence in Karachi.

Noted authority on India-Pakistan affairs, Professor Stephen Cohen, opines that if only Karachi could resolve its ethnic tribulations, it would be a great multi-cultural city like New York. But to achieve that – peace, growth and sanity not only for its premier city but for the entire nation, Pakistan has to truly look inwards, shed its historical baggage of many animosities, stem its radicalisation and sincerely move towards the inclusive  dreams of its founder before it is too late. Even Pakistan’s usually optimistic Interior Minister, the voluble Rehman Malik lamented recently that “all those who have the opportunity are moving out of Karachi.” This fabled city thus symbolises the mess Pakistan is in currently and perhaps only divine intervention may save it.

Lt Gen Kamaleshwar Davar, PVSM, AVSM (Retd) was the first chief of the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA)

(Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent the views either of the Editorial Committee or the Centre for Land Warfare Studies).