SUBTITLED ‘When brothers and sisters fight’, Louise Bates Arnes wrote He Hit Me First in 1982 on selected dos and don’ts for parents of children caught up in sibling rivalry.
The don’ts include “…act as a referee … encourage tattling … compare your children to each other … allow your children to play you against your spouse … take the blame for the way your children behave”. And the dos “…keep in mind that most children fight (a lot) … try and find out why they fight … separate your children more than you may be doing … use rules, keep them simple and specific, … do what you can to make each child feel special”.
This parental guide could well have been aimed at Karachi dwellers, who, in a manner of speaking, attained puberty in the 1970-80s and are now slowly moving through the adolescent stages. The ‘sibling’ rivalry of the communities of the metropolis, despite sharing a common destiny, has reached epidemic proportions, destroying the fabric of society and strangling the economic pulse of the city at a point when the overall financial situation of the country has bottomed. Each ‘sibling’ blames the others for the violence (he hit me first…) and excuses his own community’s retaliation as natural.
The MQM feels that Karachi voted for them. A study of the 2008 election results shows that despite receiving 34 (76 per cent) of the 42 Karachi seats in the Sindh Assembly, only 48 per cent of the registered voters of the city turned out. The MQM managed 69 per cent of the votes cast. In any case, ethical and committed assemblymen are bound to look after the legitimate interests of all citizens in their constituency, not only those who voted them in.
When Altaf Hussain directed his party members to stop
their ‘peaceful protest’ against the incendiary remarks of Zulfikar Mirza, even the unknown violent protesters heeded his call and stopped the killings and torching of vehicles.
In the 1998 census, 48 per cent of the city’s population was Urdu-speaking, 14 per cent Punjabi-speaking, 12 per cent Pushto-speaking and some nine per cent Sindhi-speaking.
With a decade of rural-urban migration, the refugee influx from the 2005 earthquake and the 2007-2008 Fata and Swat operations, the proportion of Pushto-speakers in the city has probably increased substantially: not all, however, owe allegiance to the ANP whose Sindh chapter projects the Pathan population at four million. Certainly, the Pathan in Karachi is better organised today than he was in 2007 — and will give his ‘siblings’ a run for their money.
The PPP’s recent move to resurrect the commissionerate system is an attempt to nullify non-Sindhi power in Karachi’s local government system, where the nazim wielded more clout and controlled larger budgets than the provincial chief minister.
Ghettos (aka no-go areas) have increasingly proliferated in pockets all over the metropolis. Ethnic minorities in some localities are being compelled to relocate, abandon house or sell commercial ventures at a loss. Students of selective ethnic groups are not given admission in schools and colleges. Even the sacking of 4,500 non-performing employees (largely Pathan) of the KESC is being coloured ethnically: they are allegedly being replaced by Urdu-speaking contract employees.
Money is being generated by armed groups through land grabbing, bhatta/extortion, drug trafficking, kidnapping, mugging and armed robberies. The abundance of weapons and explosive devices has rendered mafias better equipped than the police who are beginning to question the feasibility of deweaponisation.
The city awaits the recommendations of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, which recently conducted a three-day fact-finding mission into Karachi’s killings, with representatives from all provinces meeting political parties, law-enforcement agencies, business/industrial communities, CPLC, hospital administrators, ambulance services, NGOs, educationists, transporters, media men, lawyers. An ‘open katchery’ was held at the Press Club, where one Baloch woman, who had lost a son in the recent killings, lamented loudly, “We are all Muslims. We may speak different languages, but we are all Muslims!”Two months ago, WikiLeaks provided a clear and wide window into the 2009 US assessment of violence in this city. Not much has changed since then, except that the ‘siblings’ of Karachi have drawn clearer battle lines and developed more aggressive strategies.
The state and law-enforcement agencies bear the greatest part of the blame. The basic function of the police is to implement the law without fear or favour, a duty now observed in the breach. Fifty years ago, those cyclists who rode ‘double-sawari’, or had no headlamp at night, were so frightened of the police that they would dismount and push the cycle far past a policeman before remounting.
Today, three astride a motorcycle, going in the wrong direction up a one-way street thumb their noses at the traffic sergeant.
Over the years, the police have increasingly ignored all kinds of violations of the law, and now society has reached what may be an irreversible state of affairs.
Politicians and bureaucrats have added to the chaos by politicising the force, while citizens look on silently. Today, a policeman will first ascertain the political and power connections of a lawbreaker before taking action as required by law. The poor and helpless are at his mercy, but may still get away if the ‘right’ amount is paid. If we are to avoid an apocalyptic ending, does it really matter who hit the other first?
Published in Dawn, August 7, 2011
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