Side-effect

Karachi was scary. With Dr Hasan Nasir, filmmaker and politician of leftist leanings, I spent some days roaming about the streets off Shahrah-e-Faisal, across the M A Jinnah Road and Saddar leading up to the Karachi Press Club for a meeting, in the heart of Malir and Khokhrapar for some film editing work, on the newly paved roads, overpasses and underpasses of Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Gulistan-e-Jauhar and North Nazimabad and in a few modest drawing rooms or roadside restaurants. Among others, we met political activists, small business entrepreneurs and near-bankrupt low-end stockbrokers. This was after a long time that I visited these politically charged neighbourhoods where the middle and the lower-middle classes form the majority. I did not witness any crime or a riot. Had no argument or a scuffle with any one either. But the trip left me extremely anxious and petrified. There was an inherent tension in the city and a mixture of anger and depression on the faces of the young and the old alike. Buses, wagons and motorbikes passing us by were full of people who looked frustrated, deprived and on the edge of exploding. I remembered the horrific scenes people watched on their televisions from some old part of Karachi just a few months ago when three men accused of being robbers were caught by a mob and lynched. First they were badly beaten and then set ablaze in the middle of the road. I could see now that this is so very possible in parts of Karachi where helplessness, unemployment, poverty and gross injustices committed by the state, criminal gangs and political mafias rule the roost.

Nobody was happy. The stockbrokers I ran into related the gory tales of corruption or mismanagement of the government and those who run the stock exchange and SECP. The announcement of the capital gain tax on stocks before the budget and then its withdrawal later, according to them, happened due to large sums of money exchanging hands between those brandishing political power in today's Pakistan and key stockbrokers from across the country. The artificial rise of the Karachi Stock Exchange under the previous government and now an incessant fall is wiping out the small investor and low-end brokerage firms. The ones I met see the stock exchange crisis as a part of a larger conspiracy by the powerful against the weak. They predict more unrest and fiscal downslide if the government does not wake up to the huge economic challenges. I argued with Dr Hasan Nasir that no one could work for the rights of the peasants and workers in Pakistan without understanding the need for protecting small businesses and encouraging real industrialisation through both local and international capital. Karachi has all the potential to develop into a major industrial and technological centre due to its industrial and commercial tradition, geographical location and highly enterprising and diligent youth.

Talking of youth, the most terrifying part of my trip was to gather that thousands of youth in the city are being prepared to be pitched against each other along blurred ethnic and religious lines. The MQM states its displeasure over the Taliban gaining new grounds in Karachi. The Taliban have reacted to MQM's allegations with threats to display their power. This unfortunately has taken an ethnic dimension because the Taliban are mostly Pakhtun. The ANP, representing nationalist Pakhtuns, maintains an uneasy calm with the MQM. Similar is the case between PPP and MQM workers. The May 12 incident of last year remains unresolved in the minds of people. Other groups see the MQM as an unreliable political partner which could resort to worst forms of violence at the drop of a hat. Fiefdoms are flourishing in helpless neighbourhoods through highhandedness and malpractices of workers belonging to these political parties. Without the connivance of the police and intelligence agencies, this is not possible.

Those who are suffering already and will suffer more in case of riots and gang wars are the millions of poor and downtrodden irrespective of their caste or creed. Spare them for God's sake.



The writer is an Islamabad-based poet and rights campaigner. Email: harris@spopk.org