The continuing violence in Karachi has held to ransom the nation’s desire for the peaceful transition of Pakistan from a history darkened with military dictatorships to a future enshrined in justice and democracy. Not only that, it is also a big challenge for both the Pakistan People’s Party’s (PPP’s) top leadership in particular and the credibility of the political structure in general. If Karachi does not quieten soon, there seems to be a serious possibility of the military taking over the city. If that happens — and the Karachi Chamber of Commerce has already issued a public statement requesting a military takeover — far from providing a solution, it would simply add another layer of problems to the crisis.
The current chaos stems from long spells of authoritarian rule that were used to usurp the power of the people to make decisions for themselves. Karachi is a city that hosts millions of working people who belong to an ethnic mosaic that contains not only the Urdu-speaking migrant community from the former United Provinces of India, but also labourers from as far away as Faisalabad, Peshawar, the tribal areas and even Afghanistan.
They have all made Karachi their home. Yet the ills of the past have come to haunt them with a vengeance. The fact that the land and arms mafia have been able to make inroads into the political system by elevating themselves to political office and ministerial posts is not the fault of democracy but a sad manifestation of the long spells of our history that experienced lack of democracy. The only way to get rid of this clout is to introduce more democracy.
The current divisions among the population in terms of ethnic backgrounds and political affiliations were fostered by and became the foundation of dictatorial rule and have to be overcome at all costs. It is the disunity among the working people and the cleavage between the industrial workers and the lower middle classes that serve the dynamic of labour exploitation and profit extraction. It is when the process of achieving these ‘terrible twin’ goals of the market economy cease to operate in a peaceful production environment that military rule is demanded and brought about.
The purpose of such moves is simply to ensure that the process of labour exploitation and profit extraction continue uninterrupted. In the past, whenever the military has usurped power in Pakistan it has left the economic, political and social fabric of society utterly devastated. Quite simply, military rule is a war on ordinary people. It is not aspirin — it is deadly nightshade. The Ziaul Haq era gave us the Kalashnikov and the heroin cultures, whereas the Musharraf years left us with the most devastating terrorist legacy ever experienced by any country.
Today, the PPP government at the Centre is faced with the grave challenge of taming the malevolent criminal elements in a city that is the jugular vein of our country’s economy. The manifesto of the party proclaims: “All power to the people.” In Karachi, the people need to be empowered and our industrial workers organised into democratic action committees. These committees would establish a network of volunteers who, in the true spirit of the Arab revolutionary spring, liaise with broader sections of society, including students, unemployed youth and womenfolk, to take to the streets, en masse. Without this type of organised process, a broader peace will be extremely difficult to accomplish.
Currently, the only political organisation that has both the national clout and the grassroots organisation to accomplish such an undertaking is the PPP, and it absolutely must take the lead right now. It is time for the working people, the students, the unemployed youth and the womenfolk to say, loud and clear, that “enough is enough!”
For the rest, including the MQM, it is time to lend their ears to the sounds of a birth pang that will shake the ground under the feet of the so-called mighty. The clock is ticking for all stakeholders, whether they be the mafia groups, political players or ordinary people. Only time will tell which social group acts as the midwife for peace — or for destruction.
The writer is a freelancer based in the UK. He can be reached at [email protected]