Can Karachi become clean?

Is there light at the end of the tunnel to see the city of lights Karachi clean from all kind of ‘dirt, garbage and pollution’. In the 70s, major roads of this city like MA Jinnah Road used to get washed almost every week, if not in days.

Can we do it again? 21 one MNAs, 44 MPAs, hundreds of councillors and thousands of workers of major political parties with citizens’ support can contribute to a large extent in this connection. Just keep your constituency clean and the city will give a different look in months, if not in weeks. As for the role of the government, city, Sindh and federal are concerned they not only need to impose ban on plastic bags, ‘gutkha’ and close down all the sources from where it come.

I still remember the good old days of this mega city, where parks and playground use to get regular water supply to keep the grass and ground clean. With the passage of time I have also seen country’s largest city in the ‘pool of blood’. How far this fresh effort to clean the city gets successful will be interesting to watch but it is certainly a step in the right direction and long overdue.

So what really happened to country’s economic hub, mini-Pakistan that the city of lights went into darkness despite giving 70 percent revenue to the Centre needs a thorough study and research.

Revival of old Karachi may be a daunting task but we can still dream of making a ‘Naya Karachi’ provided someone takes the ownership.

It’s a dilemma of this city that either its mega projects like Karachi Mass Transit only remained in files and millions and millions of rupees either gone waste or in corruption or if any project launched it ever got completed in time like Lyari Expressway, which took 15 to 20 years.

With the passage of time things went from bad to worse as far as development of the city is concerned and today it’s a city where you can see garbage in almost every locality, its residential areas converted into commercial areas; footpaths and services roads even parks have been encroached.

Since the beginning, Karachi has ‘tripartite conflict’ between the Centre, Sindh and local government. From the decision to transfer federal capital from Karachi to Islamabad, to withdraw the power of the local government, the city confronts with multiple problems.

Today its population is nearly 30 million which makes it fifth largest in the world but never governed like any other metropolitan city in the world. Mayor of Karachi, irrespective of which party he belongs only has 34 percent of the city under his control.

All this adds to multiple problems as the city now is practically divided into three major players ie KMC, Cantonment Board and DHA. Besides, successive Sindh governments have not given much importance to its provincial capital.

Population mismanagement, bad governance, political consideration, lack of power sharing formula further deteriorated the situation. Those who claimed the ownership of the city unfortunately treated it like a tenant.

While media highlights the plight of Karachi because of its size and value, situation in other major cities of Sindh like Hyderabad, Sukkur, Larkana is even worst when it comes to civic amenities.

Bloodbath in Karachi in the last 40 years resulted in the killing of nearly 50,000 people from 1978 to 2018, or may be more in ethnic, sectarian, political killings and terror attacks like bomb blasts.

This led to the destruction of civic structure and billions of rupees suppose to be sanctioned for the betterment and development either gone waste or in the pockets of few people.

Thus for years the people of Karachi were hungry for peace and want to see their city clean and developed accordingly.

Unlike in 1992, 1995 and 1998, the last Karachi operation from 2013 to 2018, resulted in remarkable improvement in the law and order and massive decline in terrorist attacks. Rangers and police with complete political backing succeeded in breaking the ‘back’ of terrorist networks and militants wings of different political and religious parties.

If Karachi can be clean from terrorism, it can also be clean from garbage provided there is a will and desire to do it through collective measures and motivation.

As mentioned above much depends on the role of federal government, Sindh government and local government. In the past they hardly remained on ‘one page’ when it comes to Karachi.

No wonder why people from cross-section of society supported the initiative taken by an MNA from Karachi, who belong to the PTI and also a federal minister for ports and shipping, Ali Zaidi, because everyone wants to see ‘mini-Pakistan’ clean. He has announced an ambitious plan and to some extent unrealistic too of removing all garbage within two weeks. If he manages to get every 15 to 20 percent job done, it would be quite an achievement. But will it be enough or there is a need to do more and maintain this drive.

It’s a daunting task but not impossible provided all the major stakeholders contribute and play their respective role. It’s much difficult than dealing with terrorists or criminals as half of the population of Karachi lives in around 8,000 ‘katchi abadis’ and authorities faced both resistance and restrictions whenever they try to clear the encroachments.

Everyone has contributed in the destruction of this city and minted money. It’s now time to pay back some.

The city has been divided into multi pile civic agencies like KMC, Cantonment Board and DHA. Had they played their role along with departments like Karachi Water & Sewerage Board, Karachi Building Authority, which has now been called Sindh Building Control Authority, Sindh Board of Revenue, Karachi Development Authority, previous KESC now K-Electric and other linked departments like Solid Waste Management.

Since Pakistan had been ruled by both civilian and military rulers, they cannot escape from the reality of making Karachi one of the most ill-planned cities. All the major parks, play grounds, amenity plots and land been either sold or encroached in a well-planned conspiracy.

The city, which once use to have a reasonable public transport system like big buses, circular railway and other mode of transport had all gone and now after 50 years we are trying to bring it back in a bid to revive city’s transport.

The PTI has an advantage as it is for the first time since 1970 elections that the party, which has won majority seats from Karachi also has government at the Centre. In the past, the city was ignored for political reasons and conflict between Centre, Sindh and local governments. With 14 MNAs and 26 MPAs from Karachi and due representation in the local bodies, the party leadership could lead by example.

Secondly, the PTI and MQM-P combination can also go in favour of Karachiites provided they should do what they have pledged in all sincerity. However, it would be naive if they go without the cooperation of the Sindh government. So it is important to launch the drive from collective platform and it would have been even better had they constituted an apex like committee comprising governor, chief minister, mayor and Ali Zaidi as representative from the Centre to look into this drive to clean Karachi. They should take the collective ownership without which this drive like such attempts in the past would also be politicised.

It is true that the prime responsibility to keep the city clean rests with Sindh and City governments but federal government can’t shun its responsibility.

Let’s wait and see whether someone has finally taken the ownership of this city or will it turn out to be just like another ‘photo or video session’ for the media.

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

Twitter: @MazharAbbasGEO