"Letter from Karachi" in The Hindu (original) (raw)

Karachi: Through Transitions and Transformations

Karachi has roots in a history of competing claims of ownerships. The central – and provincial government’s conflicts and tensions over asserting control over the city, as well as the political feuds among the parties having representation in different ethnic communities have transformed the city through various phases of transitions and transformations during the years. Chronic violence has always been a permanent trait of politics in the city. Rivalries and distrust among various communities, social classes, ethnic groups and religious sects have consistently been dividing the city along these lines. State-backed enterprise of religious militancy for achieving strategic and political objectives through violence has resulted in the emergence of home grown Jihadi groups with ideologues such as Mufti Ahmadur Rehman, Mufti Rasheed Ahmed Ludhianvi (AlRasheed Trust) and Mufti Nizamuddin Shamezai. The Upper tier and mid-level leadership of these groups come from the vast network of religious seminaries across the city. The fact that recruits are coming from all the ethnic groups, has made the city a capital of militancy; providing a major part of the jihadis’ financial resources through voluntary donations, intimidation of businessmen and traders, as well as a complex network of financial crimes. Sectarian differences have never been settled. In fact, they can be traced to the long history of religious and political conflicts and contradicting interpretations of historic incidents. But acts of terrorism against minority sects are an extension to, and a facet of the enterprise of jihad. It emanates from the same network of religious seminaries in the city, while the ability to inflict violence comes from their training in camps run by jihadi groups. On the other hand, Karachi has been a killing and dumping place not only for deranged militants of various factions of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, but also for activists of Baloch nationalist groups rebelling against the Pakistani State from the neighboring province of Baluchistan; mutilated dead bodies have been found at the outskirts of the 4 city, as well as in the bordering territories of the adjacent district of Lasbella, Baluchistan. Targeted operations by the Police and paramilitary forces, the Rangers, have triggered political discontent in the ranks and files of the largest political party of the city, Mohajir Qaumi Movement (MQM), as well as within the various factions of the Taliban. The Taliban have thus tabled a list of demands before the ongoing bid of talks with the government. Stopping law enforcement agencies from killing their detained militants is on the top of the list of demands. The conflict in Karachi portrays the overall condition of what has been going wrong at the central level and what will come in the near future, when the United States and its allies are withdrawing from Afghanistan. Various jihadi groups linked to the military establishment and intelligence agencies have escalated their activities in the city in order to make new alignments for jihad on the old fronts of Kashmir and Afghanistan; as well as the new battlefields of Syria and Myanmar.

Our City, Your Crisis: The Baloch of Karachi and the Partition of British India

This essay approaches the Partition of British India through the perspective of the Baloch inhabitants of Karachi, who locate the city at the centre of diverse political geographies and cultural lineages. We specifically look at the testimony of the residents of Karachi’s historic neighbourhoods of Qiyamahsari and Lyari. Their narratives demonstrate how Partition spelled the end of certain forms of sociopolitical life in the city, while reaffirming others. Together, these narratives help re-conceptualise Partition as a temporally and spatially dilated series of migrations and transformations, rather than as an event unproblematically tethered to the space and time of nation-states.

Karachi: A City on the Edges of Economic Opportunity and Unbound Lawlessness

Australian Outlook, 2024

The metropolis of Karachi is known as “Mini Pakistan,” with people from every part of the country uniting in a sharing of unique languages, cultures, cuisines, and customs. It is also a city with many problems, from water crises to electricity outages, and a population explosion that contributes to burgeoning crime.