Daily Times

The ‘city of lights’, the industrial and commercial hub of the country, Karachi that harbours nearly 18 million persons has been seething with anger and bleeding for several years. Even though people of other regions and ethnicities have come to live here, the Urdu-speaking people, mohajirs (immigrants) dominate its politics and society. Calm and peace prevailed in the city until a few years ago. This state of being has lately been shattered. Hardly a day passes without exchanges of fire between rival contenders for supremacy. One would want to know who is killing whom and why.

The great majority of the Urdu-speaking people in Karachi (mohajirs) are affiliated with the MQM headed by Altaf Hussain who directs its affairs on the telephone from London. In the general perception, he and his party notables approve of physical violence in dealing with opponents and dissidents. Persons belonging to other ethnicities have also come to live in the city in search of jobs and living space. None of them can match the MQM in mustering street power. The maintenance of public tranquillity should then mainly be the MQM’s responsibility. We hear different versions of how persons belonging to different ethnic and linguistic groups get along with one another. Needless to say, there are nice as well as nasty people on both sides. They were not born to be what they have become. Opinion makers along the way have influenced their attitudes. Also to be considered is that they are competing for jobs and business opportunities. It would be to the advantage of each group if its competitors were somehow driven out of the market. Mafiosi have surfaced to generate hate campaigns against rival groups.

Hostility between the mohajirs and the Sindhi-speaking people (native Sindhis) is at work in the Karachi situation. This goes back to the time when Mumtaz Bhutto was the chief minister of Sindh and when the provincial assembly made Sindhi the official language. The native Sindhis were also given a quota of seats in the public services for which the mohajirs could not be eligible. It should be understood that the medium of communication has a strong bearing on the assessment of merit. If Sindhi is the language of business in government establishments and the language of instruction and examinations in schools and colleges, the mohajir will have to walk many extra miles to compete with those whose native language is Sindhi. That may be the reason why thousands of elementary and middle schools in the province are inoperative. Sindhi teachers who can teach Urdu, a required subject of study, are in short supply.

Punjabis, Pakhtuns and Baloch have also come to live here and become a party in the ethnic conflict. Tension between them is aggravated by the fact that they are backed by political parties — Punjabis by PML-N, Pakhtuns by ANP and the Sindhis by the PPP. One may ask why members of these various groups do not treat one another first and foremost as fellow Pakistanis, disregarding their ethnic and regional origins. The answer may be that the pull of nativity is much more compelling than that of patriotism, which in the final analysis is nothing more than dedication to an idea.

Another consideration is relevant to an understanding of the mohajir state of mind. Their grandparents who migrated to Karachi in the early and mid 1950s had been active participants in the struggle for Pakistan. They were inclined to think of this country as their gift to its other residents. Given this self-perception, they felt they were entitled to precedence over others in directing its affairs. This they did with the assistance of some Punjabi notables. Their dominance diminished considerably with the advent of Mumtaz Bhutto and the rise of Sindhi self-assertion. The mohajirs of today want to recreate their earlier primacy. It seems to me that this agenda is nothing short of a utopia.

Beyond passion and prejudice that move people to hostility and violence against one another, we are witnessing an enormous rise in the incidence of street crime perpetrated by gangsters. Dozens of automobiles, hundreds of mobile phones, jewelry, cash, and other valuables are snatched from their owners every day. Investigators say there is a hardly a home in the city one or more of whose residents have not been robbed. Individuals are kidnapped for ransom and shopkeepers are forced to surrender protection-money, failing which they will be killed and their properties plundered. This has nothing to do with ethnic and linguistic rivalries. It is a result of the present government’s inability or unwillingness to enforce the law. Many observers believe that people have been reduced to intense misery and no one should be surprised if they come out on the streets, demolish the existing order, and bring about not a new order but chaos. Others will tell us that the present rulers are so oblivious of the ground realities that they do not know the chaos is already here.

Returning to the killings and other expressions of lawlessness in Karachi, it may be said that the mainstream politicians have work to do. I am not one of those who argue that all will be well if they get together and agree on an agenda. This will be a futile exercise. None of them will accept the position that his party has any part in instigating the turmoil in Karachi. Nor is there any ambiguity about the agenda. All they have to do is to tell their respective constituents to pull back from the path of violence. They do not even have to negotiate any power-sharing bargain. Let an honest election be held and let the parties concerned have as much power or influence as the results allow them. Acceptance and practice of genuine democracy may be the best way of restoring peace and civility to the city of lights. Altaf Hussain and his consultative council will then rule Karachi. They are a part of the ground realities in this county. They cannot be wished away. And who can say that if and when they do come to power, they will not produce a version of the public interest with which the majority of the nation can live.

The writer, professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts, is currently a visiting professor at the Lahore School of Economics. He can be reached at dranwar@lahoreschool.edu.pk