Karachi's Long Ordeal

No political consensus, unplanned exponential growth, and climate change continue to inflict misery on the city.

Photo Credit - AFP

With every passing year, the misery inflicted upon the citizens of Karachi during monsoon season continues to worsen. And as expected, we see traditional and social media erupt with political bickering and blame games. Meanwhile, for those on the ground, the agony continues.

Decades of criminal negligence has brought Karachi to its knees.

In my view, there are three major issues confronting Karachi:

1. Unplanned, rapid growth. Karachi is where people from all over Pakistan go to when they want to earn a livelihood and change their destiny. Additionally, refugees have historically settled in the city, from the migrants in the aftermath of partition to the most recent wave of IDPs from the tribal areas. This influx of population has made Karachi one of the fastest growing cities in the world.

2. Climate change. Global weather patterns are changing and cities like Karachi are going to be in the eye of the storm. Large parts of the city are at or below sea-level, meaning that as water levels rise and rainfall becomes unpredictable, the city will continue to face the full fury of mother nature.

3. Political game of thrones. Since 1947, the city’s politics has been a rollercoaster ride. The city has seen long spells of violence, the most recent one ending after the Nawaz Sharif-led government brought all parties together and forged a consensus that allowed paramilitary forces and Sindh Police to clamp down criminal, mafia, and terror outfits ravaging the city. This lack of elite consensus creates a crisis of governance exacerbates the first and second issues above.

All of this has meant that Karachi routinely floods, trash piles up either on streets or chokes drains, citizens die of electrocution while going out on a bike ride, and countless households do not have access to clean water.

In fact, the scale of the negligence is such that even elite parts of the city, particularly the DHA, do not have proper stormwater drainage and clean drinking water! I remember that when Clifton and Defence flooded some years ago, the DHA and Clifton Cantonment Board came up with a solution that is probably unique to Karachi - trenches dug in the middle of the road for collection of rainwater, leading directly into seaview. Not surprisingly, these drains are also choking now and their covers are collapsing!

One cannot also ignore the role of the judiciary in all this. A few months ago, the current Chief Justice made headlines when he wanted the city to be restored to its former glory. How? By reverting to the city’s old master plan!

The court hasn’t stopped there. It has been ordering authorities to raze illegally constructed structures, including high-rise buildings. While there is no denying that many structures in the city have been built illegally, it is also important to acknowledge that the wrath of these orders falls on the those with less privilege. They are made homeless and jobless as a result and are pushed into poverty.

A tri-polar political structure means Karachi’s problem will only get worse.

I spoke to Dr. Farhan H. Siddiqi, Associate Professor at the Quaid-e-Azam University, about the city’s issues. The key takeaway from my discussion with him was that a lack of elite consensus on governing the city will continue to be a major issue.

The full discussion is worth your time, but in short, his argument about Karachi’s governance issues was as follows:

1. The MQM continues to have a grassroots presence and the party is trying to make a comeback after it saw its influence and power erode in recent years. Disowning Altaf Hussain and reenergizing its base about how Karachi’s ethnic Mohajirs are suffering may enable it to regain popularity in the coming months.

2. The PTI has been the biggest beneficiary of the MQM’s decline, winning a large number of national and provincial assembly seats from the city. However, it does not have deep, community linkages in the city. This, coupled with the party’s lack of power in Sindh province means that it cannot do a lot to improve the lives of its voters.

3. The PPP continues to be dominant in Sindh and in some parts of Karachi, making it a powerful political entity. Despite being wholly unpopular in Karachi, the party has a firm grip on power at the provincial level, meaning that any and all changes to how Karachi is governed will need its vote of approval.

On top of this are several layers of influence that play a key role in the city’s political economy. The largest players of course is the military establishment which runs the DHA and the paramilitary Rangers, which have entrenched themselves into the city’s politics over the decades.

I pointed out to Dr. Siddiqi my opinion that because Nawaz Sharif and the PML-N did not have high political stakes in Karachi, they could play the role of an honest broker between 2013 and 2018. This allowed the PML-N to force some sort of consensus that yielded significant improvements in the city’s law and order situation. But now with the PTI in power in Islamabad, there is no honest broker in Islamabad, making the achievement of a consensus that much more difficult.

Can engagement by committees lead to a consensus?

With local body polls approaching and the city reeling from monsoon rains, it seems that the PTI has recognized that engagement with the PPP, MQM, and others is much needed. Here’s a quote from a report by Zia-ur-Rehman in The News on Sunday:

The PTI, which won most of the National and Provincial Assembly seats from Karachi, says that the party’s top leadership had taken a difficult decision to sit down with the provincial government for the sake of development and welfare of Karachi.

But with local polls fast approaching, the committee has its work cut out:

Another challenge the committee will face will present itself when the local governments are dissolved at the end of August and administrators are appointed to take charge till the next elections. The committee will have to agree on a suitable person for the post of the administrator for Karachi.

Also, before the local government polls, delimitation of constituencies would be carried out, as per orders of the Election Commission of Pakistan.

I for one am not too hopeful that this committee will achieve some monumental breakthrough. In so many ways, the status quo in the city benefits all elite factions in the city.

The only path forward, in my view, is for the citizenry to organize themselves and run a grassroots movement that forces political and non-political elites to empower the city. Without that, we will continue to see pictures of the city’s collapse for years to come.

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