Born and living in Karachi, I’ve seen many variations of ups and downs here in my lovely city. Gone are the days when strikes and agitations used to be held for weeks, and riots and chaos erupted so suddenly that nobody could have imagined.
Karachi has seen the best and the worst, and now its population has exceeded 2.5 million people. One of the ever-changing megacities, Karachi has seen exceptional progress and development during the tenure of City Mayor Syed Mustafa Kamal who has done wonders in a very short period of time.
The current government has shown no guts to allow the continuation of development and the progress-based city district setup, and since then, the city doesn’t see much development as compared to the time when Kamal was striving hard to make this city one of the model cities of the world.
Apart from the discontinuation of the city district setup, Karachi’s peace-loving citizens have been experiencing one of the worst phases of terrorism in the shape of targeted killings and riots, which have been resulting in the deaths of five to 10 innocent people every day at the hands of “unidentified elements”.
Surprisingly, the presence of personnel of the law-enforcement forces, like the police, Rangers, FC and FIA, in Karachi exceeds the number of personnel operating in any other city in Pakistan.
But it’s very easy to shrug your shoulders and say, “We are unable to do anything.” Then what the hell are they being paid for?
Is it acceptable that law-enforcement agencies are unable to curb the bloody game being played in the city of Karachi? Is it because many do not see the people of Karachi as sons of the soil?
If this is the case, then we should address the grave issue or else, God forbid, we are only fanning the little problems until they turn into bigger problems.
The people of Karachi are very much aware of the fact that some political parties that have no mandate in the city are trying to take a piece from the cake.
In the era of the city district setup, there were so many projects that were supposed to take off, but due to the ever-changing government policies and interests, the city district setup was not adopted, so the city nazim, who had many aspirations regarding development of the city, could do nothing.
Four years have passed now, but there is not a single megaproject that could be counted as development. Unfortunately, the Karachi Master Plan remains untouched since the mayor’s departure.
Traffic, law & order and transportation are the major issues that the people of Karachi are facing, and yet the government seems helpless to do anything.
It is roughly estimated that on a daily basis, more than 700 vehicles, including 400 motorcycles, start plying the roads after being registered in Karachi, which increases the fleet on the road, but there is no sign of expansion or improving public transportation.
Karachi needs more people like Kamal, Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ebad Khan, Dr Farooq Sattar, Haider Abbas Rizvi and so many others who really belong to middle-class families of Karachi and who really own this city.
I hope that in the coming days and months, the government will change the administration of Karachi and the soaring issues will be resolved.
I also hope that development projects will be started and many burning issues will be addressed, and in the end, the peace loving people of this city will be free of terror and fear.
It is widely believed that a single day of strike in Karachi causes a loss of more than Rs 4 billion. It simply means that the economic activities in the city give around Rs 1.3 trillion to the national exchequer every year, which is more than 67 percent, but what it gets in return is pitiful.
We need to give the people of Karachi their rightful share so that new investment and economical activities can be started, and in return, the country will flourish.
Not too long ago, Pakistan’s GDP was 8.5, but I’m sorry to say that in 2011, the GDP has come down to as low as 2.4, and it’s very unfortunate that instead of progress and development, we are lagging far behind.
The major reason of this deterioration is the corrupt and self-cantered bureaucracy, politicians, generals and many institutions that are damaging the country and concentrating only on their own interests.
We need to realise our problems and try to pinpoint some areas of improvement, like introducing equal education to all its students, sufficient health and employment facilities.
Above all, justice should prevail without any discrimination and all the citizens of Pakistan should be treated equally.
Karachi: home of 2.5 million people
