Report
 
Karachi PPP’s Achilles’ heel
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Visits 443
April 06, 2012
When Karachi burns, the rest of the country feels the heat. Being a producer and provider of close to 25 percent of the country’s GDP, the closure of Karachi costs the national exchequer Rs10 billion loss per day. Life losses in target killings, bloodbath and damages to private businesses, properties and public transport vehicles are besides the aforementioned losses.

Ironically, every time violence erupts in the city, the political stakeholders of Karachi and partners in the ruling coalition are at each other’s throat. Like always, this time around the MQM briefly boycotted the parliamentary proceedings and blamed the PPP for not doing enough to ensure Karachi peace. Few may call it an act of political naivety. Notwithstanding the fact that after the passage of 18th Amendment the responsibility for maintaining law and order is a provincial subject, very meaningfully the MQM has been raising hue and cry in Islamabad and knocking at the federal government’s door. Why should not they because Karachi’s unending cycle of violence has less to do with maintenance of law and order and more to do with the rivalries of political parties, especially the PPP and MQM. The MQM also holds Awami National Party (ANP) responsible for mayhem and bloodshed in Karachi.

On the other hand, the ANP squarely blames MQM for being despotic, politically unaccommodative and excessively relying on violent tactics to hold on to its political base in the port city, which is constantly weakening due to abrupt changes in demographics dynamics of the city. The ANP claims to represent some 25 percent of Karachi population but has only two seats in the Sindh Assembly. It has serious reservations about the current demarcation of provincial and National Assembly constituencies in Karachi which heavily favour MQM. They demand re-demarcation of electoral constituencies and a military operation to clean the city of terrorists and miscreants on the pattern of Swat. These ideas are furiously resisted and opposed by the MQM.

For its part, the PPP has its own set of interests, agendas and predicaments in Karachi. It won’t be wrong to call Karachi the PPP’s Achilles’ heel. Clearly, the PPP’s political clout lies outside Karachi; however, it wishes to regain its lost political significance in the country’s financial capital and economic hub. Its interests lie in winning more seats from Karachi in the upcoming general elections. In this regard, the MQM-ANP turf battles and ethno-political wrangling add to the PPP’s political advantage. However, its predicament is that neither can it alienate MQM nor can it ignore the demands of ANP. In order to ensure victory in next general election against Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) and Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehrik Isnsaf (PTI) it needs both MQM and ANP. So it has to appease and accommodate the contrary demands of MQM and ANP. Moreover, though the PPP can survive in the center without the support of one of the two Chaudhrys of Gujrat who joined hands with the PPP despite being blamed for the murder of PPP Chairperson, it will lose partnership either in Sindh or Khyber Pakhtunkhwa if any of the two ends its coalition with the PPP. So for political expediency, PPP’s Rehman Malik talks of a proverbial third force or a foreign hand behind the bloodshed and unrest in Karachi.

It is noteworthy that every time the MQM is put on the spot by media for being passive at the provincial front, given the fact that law and order is a provincial subject, and pensive at national front it alludes to President Asif Ali Zardari’s role holding a key to Karachi’s peace. This veiled reference makes a sense in the context of impending local government’s election and a stand-off between PPP and MQM to continue with local bodies system introduced by Musharraf or replace it with Commissionerate System. WikiLeaks indicates feud over local government system between the PPP and MQM has gone on for two years. PPP wanted appointed-Administrators in place of District Nazims until new elections were held. MQM agreed so long as elections were held in 90 days. The PPP was worried that the MQM influence under the Nazim system and widespread disfavor of the PPP by Nazims would lead to a poor showing by PPP in many of the 23 Sindh Districts. Ironically, in August last year the District Nazim system was restored in Karachi and Hyderabad, the two strongholds of MQM, while the commissionerate system was promulgated in the rest of Sindh province.

Between 2002 and 2008 or during Musharraf’s rule Karachi remained peaceful with the exception of few incidents of violence. During this period two major political parties — PPP and PML-N — were sidelined and their top leadership was exiled so the sole ownership of Karachi was under the MQM control. However, now things have changed and the MQM is facing a stiff competition from its rivals in Urban Sindh and Karachi. It has to show a spirit of political accommodation and learn to share power. The PPP, which has been refusing the legitimate demand of MQM to announce date for local bodies elections, should act like big brother and senior partner so that the control of the city goes to the elected local representatives. If free and fair elections are ensured and elected local representatives take the reins of local governance and administration of the city, a major political demand of MQM will be fulfilled, which is legitimate and genuine anyway. After that in the light of Supreme Court’s verdict efforts should be made to de-politicize the police and political parties should disband their armed wings. Though PPP banned People’s Aman Committee in theory, in practice it continues criminal activities unabated.

At the end of the day the stakes of political elite or political parties in Karachi are confined to win elections instead of having central focus on governance. The unending cycle of violence of all hues and colours in Karachi is a political issue and everyone but the political parties could stop fighting if they wanted to.

The author writer is a Senior Analyst at ICPVTR, Singapore and can be reached at hafizbasit@yahoo.com

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