Saving Karachi

Karachi, Pakistan’s “jewel in the crown”, the financial hub and its most diversified city has become a failed metropolis because of severe issues pertaining to governance, rule of law, infrastructure and lack of civic amenities.

With a population of more than 20 million and crumbling institutions, Karachi is fast turning into a huge garbage dump. The outbreak of lethal diseases due to unhygienic conditions is threatening millions.

The monsoon rains further exposed Karachi’s multiple disorders namely broken roads, electricity failure and choking of the drainage system.

The absence of a viable sewage and waste disposal system further hampered citizens. All three major stakeholders of Karachi the Sindh government led by the PPP, the city government controlled by the Mayor belonging to the MQM, and the PTI which won the majority of national and provincial assembly seats from Karachi, have failed to address these issues.

Fact-based statistics and the ignorance of those responsible for this state of affairs in the city, why are our writers afraid to write?

For the past 13 years, Pakistan People’s Party is ruling in the Sindh province, but the people of Karachi are still deprived of their basic rights.

The whole of Sindh is ruled by the PPP on the basis of majority, while the Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan (MQM-P) had the powers of the local bodies of major cities of Sindh.

PPP is not interested in solving Karachi’s problems, the MQM has an excuse of incompetence while the PTI cannot intervene directly, the consequences of which are being borne by the citizens.

The representative from all parties, including Jamaat-e-Islami, whose livelihood depends on the politics of this city, kept on scoring political points from the air-conditioned rooms.

Karachi is at the mercy of MQM, PPP, and PTI at the same time. MQM in local government, Sindh in province and PTI in Centre all parties gave the people of Karachi nothing but disappointment.

No other megacity in the world is facing such a predicament as Karachi. The city which was the federal capital till 1959 suffered from neglect and injustice by those wielding power.

Don’t know why the people of the city aren’t raising their voices against the incompetent government of Sindh as well as the other parties who ignored the city to gain their own goals.

There is a bitter history and we need to understand the power dynamics and the underlying socio-economic issues as well as the nature of these political actors’ nature.

Now, if there is an election or a political actor comes to your doorstep for the vote, you must return to them all that you have got during their rule.