City management
WHILE Karachi is the country’s largest city, it is also amongst the worst managed large urban spaces in Pakistan, often dumped at the bottom of liveability indices. Crime, pollution, crumbling infrastructure and the dearth of public transport are just some of the key problems afflicting Karachi. According to the city’s mayor Murtaza Wahab, at the root of the matter is the fact that multiple government agencies manage land in the metropolis. While speaking at an event on Tuesday, Mr Wahab said that the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation controlled only “27.4pc” of the megacity’s land, while adding that he had no “direct administrative relationship” with the city’s other land-controlling agencies. The mayor’s plaint is not without merit, though it must be said that KMC has failed to maintain the land that it does have control over.
It is true that there are multiple land-controlling bodies in Karachi. These include cantonments, as well as federal bodies such as the Karachi Port Trust and Railways. In this respect, where there are so many layers of bureaucracy involved, it is indeed a Herculean task to manage a city as geographically vast and densely populated as Karachi. Therefore, when new federal and provincial governments emerge next year, they should work with Karachi’s elected leadership to bring the city’s management under one body — the KMC. It makes no sense for multiple official bodies to lay claim to Karachi’s land. Numerous cantonment boards, for example, administer large tracts of land, even though there are few actual military facilities under their jurisdiction. Civilian areas should come under the administrative control of KMC, while purely military facilities can be managed by the armed forces. Other federal bodies also need to hand over control to the elected municipality. Yet if KMC were to better manage the areas currently under its control, it would make a stronger case for the return of all city areas to Karachi’s elected government.
Published in Dawn, November 9th, 2023
Jailed women
THE public’s faith in the criminal justice system cannot be nurtured with brazen abuse of power. Six months after the fateful May 9 carnage, every political detainee is morphing into a symbol of injustice. The state’s policy of working in the shadows, through law enforcers, intimidation of political activists and media curbs must be reconsidered as the scale of repression has come to signal a danger to liberty. This was also clear in PML-N Senator Saadia Abbasi’s speech on Tuesday when she raised the issue of the prolonged confinement of PTI lawmakers and demanded production orders of fellow PTI senators who were either in jail or hiding to evade arrests. She also said her party endured immense hardship in the past but it did not keep her from raising her voice for those one rarely speaks of, which would include the embattled party’s incarcerated women workers and activists. Indeed, PTI would do well to learn from the gesture as even political rivals have fundamental rights and a powerful response to oppression is to shine a light on political victims.
Freedom of affiliation and conviction is not peripheral in a democracy. But the fact that this is arguably the largest number of women imprisoned for the longest duration in Pakistan’s stormy political life hints at a pervasive malaise. Are these women caught in the storm of PTI’s stand-off with the establishment and their own beliefs? The sequence was seen again on Monday with the court’s notice to the FIA on a post-arrest bail petition of designer Khadija Shah in the inflammatory tweets case; it will either continue with eventual ‘rearrest’ or close with a press conference. Reportedly, over 63 PTI women workers were arrested till July and last month’s letter from Kot Lakhpat jail explained the tragedies faced by 18 of them. Moreover, politician Yasmin Rashid’s long captivity underscores the sense that invisibility has become a means to sustain fear. Even darker is the realisation that imprisoned women in the Zia era were leaders or prominent politicians, fewer in number and held for a shorter time. Rights and transparency must be espoused to prevent a mockery of justice and democracy. The state of women behind bars, away from children and kin, is proof that the post-May reaction is past the confines of the law.
Published in Dawn, November 9th, 2023
Political revival
THE hitherto moribund political atmosphere has picked up a pulse. With the PML-N and MQM announcing they will be joining hands, the political wheeling and dealing that precedes every election has begun in earnest.
Over the coming weeks, the reconfiguration of the political landscape will be a topic for intense speculation and debate. It will be interesting to see what new alliances emerge from the current context.
It is amusing to observe the MQM joining hands with a new ‘partner’ to seek, for the umpteenth time, a charter to address the problems of urban Sindh. The party has by now built a formidable reputation for its ability to manoeuvre to the right side of every new government, but this marriage of convenience is still likely to be a hard sell for its constituencies.
It is perhaps due to this realisation that the MQM has denied reports of an ‘alliance’ with the PML-N and played it down as a mere ‘seat adjustment’.
It also seems that the long-foretold parting of ways between the PPP and PML-N is nigh. The parties have had an uneasy relationship since August, and a PML-N-led coalition seeking inroads into the PPP’s turf may prove the last straw for Messrs Asif Zardari and Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari.
While the former has welcomed the challenge, the PPP is growing increasingly antsy about what it sees as collusion between PML-N and the security establishment. To counter the PML-N, PPP has said it is open to a deal with the PTI in Punjab.
It is doubtful if such an arrangement can materialise given how strongly the two parties have been opposed to each other. But politics, as they say, is the art of the possible, and one cannot rule out surprises as long as Mr Zardari is in the game.
It also remains to be seen which way Jahangir Tareen’s Istehkam-i-Pakistan Party is going to lean in the days ahead. The IPP has the clout and resources to make a strong showing in south Punjab, and both the PML-N and PPP would want it on their side because of their own weakened positions.
Given the direction the MQM has chosen, IPP may soon follow suit. However, till that happens, the province remains wide open — especially if the PTI remains subject to the ongoing state crackdown and is forced to either sit out or fight the upcoming elections with its hands tied.
In KP, the JUI-F has remained close to PML-N, but recent developments seem to suggest a cooling relationship.
A meeting between the party’s chief and several PTI leaders recently sparked considerable speculation. Was it a flash in the pan or the start of something unexpected? We may not have to wait too long before we find out.
Published in Dawn, November 9th, 2023