Daily Times

A debate is gaining momentum, both formal and informal in different social circles that making Karachi a federal territory will supposedly solve the century old problems due to its gradually loosing status of being “Commercial Hub” of the country.

The ever deteriorating situation, increasing slums, illegal encroachments, vanishing green cover, rising crime, enmasse influx are just some of the many issues that visibly Karachi.

Of course there is a linguistic divide on this issue. Urdu Speaking people (Mohajir), enthusiastically could support this move. On the other hand, Sindhis, possibly will resist at the last extent on the idea of making Karachi a federal territory. The point is not whether Urdu speaking or Sindhi community want /don’t want Karachi to be a part of federal. The point is that the 22 million of people of the the city have been suffering from decades.

This has come out very clearly in different poles conducted on social media. The overwhelming majority supported the idea; while a majority of Sindhis opposed it. The reasons for this are rooted in history and instead of going too long into depth here, Karachi’s current scenario is enough to perceive the situation entirely .Unlike most Urdu Speaking community however, I do not lash out at anyone suggesting that Karachi be made a federal territory. I propose instead to examine the validity of their arguments using the Q & A method.

Enjoying the power consistently for more than a decade, Pakistan People’s Party has given nothing except disappointment to the citizen of Karachi. The whole of Sindh is ruled by the PPP on the basis of majority, while In the tenure of President Pervez Musharraf, Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) had the powers of the local bodies in entire Katachi, had been provided special financial packages for Karachi city, that could integrated system in which garbage was collected and storm drains were cleaned on grass root level. but, they too, unfortunately, engaged in money banking and ignored the century old issues of the

Over decades unconcerned attitude of Sindh’s ruling elites on public interest made the ego of frustrated people awake up. As a result of these frustrations and prolonged negligence people compelled to raise their voices against the incompetent system and has made citizens happy to welcome the arrival of the National Disaster Management Authority in Karachi, Which is probably the first step towards making the city a part of the federation. NDMA significantly improved the condition of Karachi. With the advent of NDMA, there has been unrest among political parties of Sindh and they are seeing their own political death in it. Similarly, the PM’s 1.1 trillion package to resolve decades old lingering and chronic issues of Karachi, is probably a same linkage towards making Karachi a federal territory.

In this regard People Party’s Senior leader Rabbani stated that the federal government was “playing with fire” and “walking in a dangerous territory which can sharpen the already existing fault lines in the country”. Without elaborating he said it seemed that the efforts were being made to revive One-Unit through “greater centralisation” and to place the 1973 Constitution under the shadow of the 1962 presidential constitution.

While on the other hand, reiterating the government’s point of view the Attorney General (AG) stated that federal government has no intention to interfere in the affairs of the Sindh government, but keeping in view the worsening situation of the provincial metropolis, center could consider available constitutional and legal options in order to fix the major city

Some sources confirm that Federal Law Minister Barrister Forough Naseem had been working on handing over Karachi to the federation for a long time and now this work is probably in the final stages of completion. The Centre will control the affairs of Karachi through the NDMA, which already has been initiated its rescue operation to help the affected areas or the affected citizens.

Karachi, infact, has always been a “Golden Sparrow” for all mainstream stakeholders in Katachi , each-one tries to hunt it down, but, never does a single attempt feeding its decades old issues. In the current scenario, PM’s recently announced package likely to make it a bone of contention among all the stake holders in Karachi.

Sources even say that, as a last resort, powerful elite of the country has made agreed of city’s mainstream parties, Pakistan People’s Party, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and Muttihada Qaumi Movement to talk joint measures for the betterment of the country’s commercial hub. In this regard, the members from these three stakeholders who have administrative positions were asked by the high level authorities to sit together to find out solution of Karachi’s problems that has been troubling the top military leadership for quite some time.

If all stakeholders still remain unconcerned over public interests and keep continued political infighting, point scoring and clashes over resources, the option to make Karachi a federation’s part might ultimately be exercised.

According to the civic observers, the only possible way to solve all these decades-long problems is to give the city a fair share according to its revenue which could be accomplished only to declare Karachi a federal territory. This step may not only improve the citizen quality of life better but also make make it as a major metropolis of the world. Apparently, this could be controversial move but eventually, it will be the only option that may help alleviate the deprivation of the citizens of Karachi.