Karachi has once again plunged into a cycle of perpetual violence; a chain of incidents in the last few days has charged and widened the ethnic divide among the political parties.
Yes, these so-called political parties whether it’s MQM, ANP or PPP, who claim to represent the city are when it comes to city politics nothing but mere armed ethnic groups. Sense of insecurity among these groups forces them to show their street power to keep the other competing groups at bay. Businesses are shut, education institutes are closed, transport is off the roads, beaches and parks are deserted, stock exchange is down the hill, only hospitals are doing roaring business. This is Karachi of today.
During the special transmission on Pakistan Resolution Day, a TV channel telecasted excerpts from a 1940s speech/interview by Moulana Abul Kalam Azad, a congress leader who vehemently opposed creation of Pakistan (that was based on his predictions about the new state being born in 1947).
The anchorperson challenged the Pakistani political and military leadership to come forward and prove Azad wrong in his predictions about division of Pakistanis on religious, sectarian, ethnic and linguistic basis. A political party who claims to represent Pashtun ethnic groups took no time to prove Azad correct in his predictions – they demanded that 10 million Urdu-speaking migrants, mostly living in urban centres of Sindh, should better go back to India. Is this an approach to ease the tension in the violence ridden city?
Though we don’t like to accept but it’s the frustration which is every now and then converting into violence. This cosmopolitan mega city is an orphanage whose residents have no role in its management and development. Though it’s in line with the ruling Peoples Party track’s records not to hold local bodies (municipal) elections in its tenure and run the city like a tribal enclave, however, someone has to come out and speak up – this city of 18 million people needs its own representatives to run the city management, to run its security matters, to rid the city of arms and criminal gangs who take pride in dealing with drugs, kidnappings, extortion and violence.
If the city continues to be run like a colony, then one shall expect repeat bouts of violence with no solution ever.
MASOOD KHAN
Jubail, Saudi Arabia
