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| Heightened fear leads to raised walls |
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Monday, November 09, 2009
By Shahid Husain
Karachi
Amid mounting incidents of suicide bombing and terrorism, schools and churches are increasing the height of their boundary walls very swiftly. One such building is the protected Trinity Church located in the heart of the city opposite Governor House.
The Trinity Church is the biggest Protestant church in city of 18 million dwellers has the distinction that the Founder of the Nation, Quaid-e-Azam, Mohammad Ali Jinnah visited it after the creation of Pakistan in August 1947, as a gesture that minorities are equal citizens in the country and would be protected by the State.
Located in the Civil Lines Quarter, Trinity Church is one of the three buildings whose history dates back to 1850s, the other two being the Old Commissioner’s Kutchery (opposite Karachi Gymkhana) and the Station Master’s office (on Sharea Faisal).
The building is built with the famous buff-coloured Gizri stone, which has mostly weathered well in Karachi’s climate. Even after 150 years of its existence, it has a singularly impressive presence.
The administration of Trinity Church is not alone to feel threatened. The walls of BVS School, another heritage building in Saddar, near Electronic Market have also been raised.
Until 1960s bungalows in Karachi had boundary walls which were four feet tall only. People living in the city were neither threatened by passerby nor with terrorism because there was a sense of calm in the city and terrorism had not yet taken root in Pakistan.
In the 1980s when Pakistan opted to fight a proxy war in Afghanistan things started changing. On the one hand, availability of deadly weapons such as Kalashnikovs became easy in the wake of Afghan War, on the other, there was a sudden surge on the ideological front and right-wing political parties and ethnic and religious groups started asserting themselves with full support of the military regime. Fear and uncertainty loomed large and people not only started raising the height of their boundary walls but the minority communities opted to migrate to greener pastures.
As a result the prosperous section of the Christian and Parsi community decided to migrate to the United States, Canada and Australia for good. Amongst them who faced financial crunch, particularly Christians, left their abodes in Saddar and moved to safer places such as Bleak House Road near Cantt Station etc.
By late 1980s the “City of Lights” was divided on ethnic lines following clashes between Pushtoons and Urdu-speaking community and people started erecting huge gates and fences in lanes in middle class localities such as Federal ‘B’ Area and Gulshan-e-Iqbal because they felt threatened.
Slowly and gradually the complexion of the city was undergoing metamorphosis from a vibrant metropolis to a city where fear and uncertainty loomed large and one felt as if one was living in a ghetto.
“The way I look at it is that violence and the fear of violence has been a direct result of our establishment’s involvement in Afghanistan since early 1980s. We saw drugs and guns seeping into our social fabric, especially our educational institutions,” said Fahimuzzaman Khan, ex-administrator Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) and a former student leader.
“Karachi used to be a city with high literacy rate and zero gun culture. We first saw walls going up around religious seminaries of conflicting sects, roof-top pickets and now the same seeping into neighbourhoods and schools across the city,” he reminisced.
“We have reached to this point in some 30 years. I hope we don’t take 30 years to undo this evil,” he said.
Michael Javed, an ex-member of Sindh Assembly concurred. “St. Peter’s Church has been torched in Murree the other day. Previously Convent Jesus and Marry (CJM) was fired upon and grenades thrown at International Islamic Church, Islamabad,” he said.
“Church attendance has dropped by at least 30 per cent. Three days ago we had ‘Old Soul Day’ at Christian Cemetery on Sharea Faisal and I was shocked to see a drop of at least 50 per cent attendance there,” he said.
“Most of the missionary schools are on roadsides and their administration fear terrorist attacks. Children of all the missionary schools have been asked to bring four photographs so that they may put their identity cards round their neck,” he said. “Quid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah never wanted Pakistan to be a theocratic state,” he pointed out.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
