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Tuesday March 19, 2024

Karachi ka muqadma

By Mazhar Abbas
June 23, 2018

‘Karachi ka muqadma’, is based on injustice, discrimination and biased. I still wonder how a nation can progress which has destroyed its own economic and commercial hub, which even in the worst situation generates over 70 per cent of country’s revenue and gets only peanuts in return. The root-cause of the problems is lack of ownership. Leaders, bureaucrats, officials become billionaires from this city, but never owned this city as their own.

The city which once used to have a culture of its own, full of life and lights, sea and port been destroyed in a most organised manner. Peace has returned to a large extent, thanks to Karachi operation; much still needs to be done.

Today, people even struggle to find a grave to bury their loved-ones and have to pay thousands to find a place in a graveyard. This is perhaps the only city in the country, which has a graveyard for unknown people, the disclosure recently made by Edhi Trust.

The city is lucky that it had produced people like the late Abdus Sattar Edhi and Dr Adeebul Hasan Rizvi, whose mission to serve humanity had saved lives of millions.

As we are going to elections on July 25, political parties and their heads are making all kinds of promises. But most of them remained silent when injustice was done in the name of so-called census and almost half of its actual population has been ignored. One can only hope that whoever represents Karachi after July 25 understands the importance of this city in country's economic development.

How you can develop and plan the city without knowing its exact population and why we ignore it. The way its 40 per cent or even more population lives in around 8,000 kutchi abadis indicate how the city has badly been planned. Beside, there are some four million aliens, who also have not been counted in the census for strange reasons. Gross injustice has been done to the city in almost all census processes since 1981. Karachi is the heart of Sindh and often called ‘Mini-Pakistan’, but no one really wants to give it the status it truly deserves being the port city and commercial centre.

If one goes deep into the problem, it would not be difficult to find out how and why its development projects took decades to complete like Karachi Mass Transit or Lyari Express Way, why its transports have been destroyed whether it is Karachi Circular Railway or Karachi Transport Corporation.

'Karachi ka muqadma’ is the case for all those who live here, irrespective of what language they speak, and what religion and sect they belong. Therefore, its case should be seen and heard above all biases.

It is perhaps the strongest case of Sindh as, being its provincial capital, it deserves to be treated as Metropolitan City, with all its manifestations. It needs a metropolitan police and system to run and not merely to make money through illegal means.

Unfortunately, the successive governments which came to power refused to give that status because of typical mindset towards Karachi, which existed from the day the federal capital was shifted from Karachi to Islamabad.

Karachi has been punished for its political role, as it played a leading role from the days of Ayub Khan and always regarded as an opposition city. That could be one of the reasons why no political party, which won election at Centre, ever emerged as the largest party from Karachi.

Those who represented Karachi in the 1970 and those ruled the city as sole representative were equally responsible in failing to make any difference and only exploited its resources.

If one simply goes through the cases, heard or pending before the Supreme Court linked to Karachi, it would not be difficult to asses what actually is the case of Pakistan's largest city and how systematically it has been destroyed and handed over to all kinds of mafias.

The recent remarks of Justice Gulzar Ahmad of the Supreme Court about the plight of Karachi was good enough to reflect the deep-rooted problem when he said, Karachi has been converted into a “jungle of high-rising building” and kutchi abadis.

From “Karachi Badamni case” to high-rise buildings, land utilisation, conversion of parks, nullahs and amenity plots into commercial plazas, Water and electricity issue, case of population census and delimitation of constituencies, etc, reflected the volume of irregularities committed and this is perhaps only 25 per cent of the problem this city of over 20 to 25 millions is facing.

Karachi has practically been given on 99-year lease to mafias with the land mafia having a leading role with clear nexus between politicians, bureaucracy and law-enforcement agencies. It may not be easy to break this nexus, as even the present Karachi operation could not fully break it for reasons other than law and order.

It not only required some very bold decisions, but also strict implementation as those who are supposed to implement are the ones involved in most of these scams. Thus, those who are supposed to be part of solution are part of the problem.

Unprecedented corrupt practices have been reported time and again from the lower to the highest levels in departments like KMC, KDA, Sindh Board of Revenue, Land Utilisation, Excise and Taxation, Sindh Buildings Control Authority, Karachi Water and Sewerage Board, Transport, Cantonment Board, DHA and the relevant departments, working under these agencies, are part of the problem and not part of solution.

If Karachi is properly managed, it still has enough water, electricity, big roads and ways to become a truly world class metropolitan city. But, when you gave illegal water, electricity and gas connections, convert 400-sq-yd plot into huge high-rise buildings, you are actually destroying the city. All the so-called nurseries in the city allegedly get water through illegal connections. Its service road, footpath and even roundabouts have been sold by those who are supposed to protect them.

All this requires leadership and a will to make and protect it as an economic and commercial hub, which is also a port city.

The SC has to look into the deep-rooted conspiracy, which led to destruction of the country's commercial hub, which still supplies 70 per cent revenue to the country. When the CJ takes up the case of how Karachi Circular Railway prize land has been sold out, he also needs to look as to why the city was deprived of its transport system and why the old system was not improved. Within 40 years, Karachi's transport has been handed over to a mafia, and as a result the Karachi Transport Corporation (KTC) was destroyed which used to ply huge buses in the city. Their huge terminals had been sold out.

How the city lands have been handed over to the real estate mafia is an eye-opener for all. Today, even city's service roads, parks, footpath have been sold out. But, the biggest threat is from unprecedented growth in high-rise buildings, commercial plazas and fast conversion of residential areas into commercial ones.

Countries protect and develop their economic and commercial centres, as its development is linked with economic progress of the country. Same is not the case with Karachi, once the city of lights with reasonable infrastructure, transport, big roads and a strong cinema culture.

The over-all look of the city was that of an enlightened, liberal and a metropolitan city. Suddenly a decision was taken by the rulers in the 1960s to shift federal capital from Karachi to a new city called Islamabad. There was a protest from cross section of society over this decision.

We all need to open up our hearts and minds while analysing Karachi, and the beginning can be made by fighting the case of whole Sindh and developing both rural and urban centres without discrimination. For this, all those who live in Sindh need to change their mindset, if they really want to move forward.

Thus, we have to stop looking and treating this city with narrow mindset. Karachi belongs to all those who live here, earn and spend on this city and they have the first right on this city whether they are Sindhis, Pashtuns, Baloch, Punjabi, Gujrati, Memon or Urdu-speaking and Muhajirs or people belonging to other ethnicities, Muslims or non-Muslims.

When anyone raises the question of injustice with Karachi, he actually raises the question of injustice with the country's economic centre. Stop treating Karachi as an ATM machine. Protest your economic and commercial centre, which still gives the highest revenue.

Karachi has seen 50,000 bodies in one of the worst ethnic, sectarian and political violence. It has become the hotbed for terrorists, from al-Qaeda to Taliban. It has seen proxy wars. It has seen how gun and drug culture has been brought and how it has been handed over to all kinds of mafias, from underworld to gang-war, militant wings and all kinds of crimes.

It is time to recognise Karachi as a city without which country's economy could come to a standstill. It is time to repay Karachi and give it its true status. This is ‘Karachi ka muqadma’, the case of 25 million vs. Federation of Pakistan.

The writer is a senior columnist and analyst of Geo, The News and Jang.

Twitter: @MazharAbbasGEO