The great economist John Maynard Keynes, ever so cryptic to those trying to study his actual texts, is believed to have taken every possible position on every issue at least once. The government seems to have taken a leaf out of his book when it comes to Karachi. There have been more flipflops on policy decisions than memory can serve to remember. But as opposed to any Keynesian out-of-the-box moment of clarity, the government seems to stay exactly where it is, despite all of its furious scurrying. Ordinarily, flexibility on key issues is indicative of an inclusive and democratic attitude. But only till a point. Beyond that, it reeks of an inability to think things through and not giving the requisite amount of attention to the problem at hand.
The latest about turn in the Karachi fiasco has been the reversion to the local bodies system. In effect, doing away with the commissionerate system that had attracted the ire of the MQM. The move is as sloppy as it could be, because it only extends to Karachi and Hyderabad, not the rest of Sindh. It doesn’t take an extensive knowledge of Sindh politics to understand that the Sindhi nationalists will not take too kindly to this. The move formalises, in a way, the difference between rural and urban Sindh. Consider: under the 18th amendment, local government is a provincial subject, with each province deciding on its own the extent to which its local bodies could be empowered. With these two systems of third-tier governance, Karachi-Hyderabad and the rest of Sindh might as well have been different provinces.
And this is no proactive, pragmatic situation to deal with the peculiarities of Karachi either. It is clear that the move was specifically meant to pacify the MQM. Hasn’t the PPP government been down this road before? Does it really think merely keeping the MQM happy for the time being is going to solve the problem?
As it so happens, tinkering with the delimitations within Karachi will help solve the problems. But not by maintaining the status quo. The positive framework of the state, be it for representation in the legislature or the executive local bodies, needs to accommodate all the other players in Karachi. The five-district model could have been a viable solution. It remains to be seen whether it will be followed up on.
