According to Global Citizen.Org Karachi is
currently ranked 5th place in the world's least liveable city. But being
Karachiites do we really need international affirmation of what is happing in
front of us? Pile of waste everywhere, pathetic conditions of roads,
overflowing of gutters, the pool of sewerage water, un-drained rainwater, power
shortages, scarcity of running water, lawlessness & all possible governance
issues are sufficient to indicate this city is in a sharp & visible decline
however the ruling party completely disagrees with the sweeping statement &
termed the Global livability ranking has been unfair to this city.
Karachi Weather in Politics
Despite
being one of the biggest city & commercial hub that pays 70% of the entire
revenue of Pakistan yet disowned & deserted by governments. Ironically
there are myriad administrative authorities like Federal, Provisional, Local,
and Army cantonments & multiple landowning bodies like Bahria Town that
take care & are the custodian of their jurisdictions. still, the overall
situation of the city is quite chaotic. However directly or indirectly
prevalent or in the recent past power-sharing equation in Karachi is mainly
divided into three political parties. PPP, MQM & PTI but unfortunately none
of them accept the administrative control of the city & dish out their
responsibilities by pointing their figures to others. Let’s begin with PPP who
is in power for the last 14 years & predominately controls the Karachi
administration the last mayor has claimed due to the notorious Sindh Local
Government Act his power has been diminished & restricted to only 12% that
has nothing to do with the city basic & civic problems.
It has been evident in recent elections whether for local, provincial & national assembly people of Karachi has rejected PPP downright & they only managed to obtain few seats but urban population ensured to deprive them in Karachi metropolitan & district polls despite everything yet they are still in steering seat of this city because the existing model of government favors them & due to Sindh government local act 2013 that intended to devolve the administrative power to the local councils but rather it made obedient to the provisional government hence mayor authority also shrunk & giving none of the powers that were initially given to the Nazim by the local government ordinance 2001 which entirely contrast to other provinces of the country. Now Sindh assembly decided that Karachi should be administrated by the provincial government & took charge of the city's important managing departments like the Sindh building control authority, Solid waste management authority, Karachi water & sewerage board, etc & revoking the responsibilities of municipal bodies for example, now Sindh solid waste management has taken over the responsibilities of KMC of solid waste collection that empowered the provincial chief minister to be in charge of Karachi’s sanitation instead of local government representatives.
The second biggest stakeholder in terms of power-sharing in Sindh & particularly in Karachi is MQM which came into existence through ethnic polarization in Sindh & initially presented itself as a representative of the middle & working class of Karachi & Hyderabad which was opposed by PPP who doesn’t want division of Sindh their motherland because PPP represents a party that believes in Sindhi nationalism. Still, this rhetoric of ethnic politics of MQM continued to rule the political discourse & the elections in the urban population of Sindh’s major cities eventually ended with demanding for a new province to dilute or tone down this demand of MQM an invisible force opened the floodgate of people in Sindh province from all over the country to come & live here on the flipside to maintain its hegemony in those cities MQM transformed itself from one particular ethnic political party to an inclusive nationalist political party that captures all the ethnicities of the country & still gained popularity. Violence is a common & still a prevalent trait of south Asian politics but MQM has given it entirely new heights & imposed a sort of political fascism in its constituencies where voices of dissent were curbed by brutal tortures & killing. Now the party that was public-centric altered itself as a leader centric & all the interests & common welfare of people were put on the back burners because it was hijacked by cult leadership & all the decisions were made not through the mutual censuses of the party’s members rather by top leadership. So elected representatives of MQM were mere puppets & had to just obey the orders. Supremo's controversial speech ended up banning the party but local leadership distanced from it & cut their ties with the founder of MQM and resumed its political activities again however it didn’t affect much on the betterment of its voters as they were still suffering & deprived of necessities that terribly reduced their credibility in their constituencies & for offsetting people's concerns their explanations aggravated their positions among their voters & people have reached the point where they compared & categorized both PPP & MQM as are same or called them brothers from another mother. They showcase their conflicts, disagreements, or concerns overtly but they are working with absolute coordination covertly.
That political merry-go-round made urban population paranoids to the core & Karachiiets desperately looked out for PTI which was a relatively new political party & was never given a mandate before hence People expected PTI with the expectation it could provide them space to vent out their anger & come up with the solutions to fix these long prevailing governance issues of the city hence PTI was welcome & elected by the people but despite being the leading party of Pakistan couldn’t do much for Karachi instead beating around the bush & gave the same excuses that MQM gives & grumps about the autonomous financial, administrative & political powers of PPP Sindh government. PTI completely ignored this City & the former prime minister of PTI & its leadership distanced themselves & turned blind eyes to the city and focused their energy on those parts of the country that enable them to regain power in the next election. So mega city again dejected & disappointed by PTI government this time & the commercial hub that generates around 70% of Pakistan’s revenues not even a fraction of that amount has given back to the city for development.
Karachi is known for its resilience & vibrant culture and it has a plethora of problems don’t know exactly where to begin because it is a real-world dystopia let’s start with some of its main problems
Humongous
Population with an upward trend.
According to Japan international cooperation agency report total population of Karachi was 15.2 Million back in 2005 & would be increased to 27.5 Million in 2020 therefore experts confidently say the current population of this city is 300 Million or more whereas the latest census of Karachi done by Sindh government is not more than statistical garbage which primary motive was to achieve political objectives. Now you could imagine a city that is expanding in all directions & its population is more than the entire population of most countries of the world & there is literally no plan in implementation to manage it that overburden the city's administrative capacity. Although there are administrative divisions in Karachi it doesn’t serve the purpose so this city needs to be broken down & at least a new city should be made from it immediately to cater to or cut down the management issues. As far as the increasing rate of population is concerned not specifically for Karachi but for Pakistan there is no external enemy required to drop bombs for destroying Pakistan here is already a time bomb of (population) ticking that would be damaging enough to damage the whole country.
Recently after long due demand the city transport department of Sindh finally started a people’s bus service that consists of a fleet of 240 buses that run different parts of Karachi however it is just a tiny step in managing the ongoing worst transport situation of Karachi things will expect to be somewhat improved when BRT red line bus service will be executed which is currently in construction but even this project is not going to completely solve the issue of public transport for the city of 3 crore population. Whereas privately-owned transports condition is awful on which the majority of the city’s population is dependent. There is no restriction or regulation of this transportation system by the government so no timing of these buses' arrival or departures there isn’t even the bus stop designated place to pick up & drop off passengers. Since the population is more & these buses are less in numbers so you find these buses overcrowded & it is very hard to find the seat in them & people are hanging on the gates & seating on the rooftop is just a normal scene on the road. Most of the Drivers of these buses don’t have a license of driving yet they fearlessly drive a passengers bus on the populated roads so for picking up more passengers they impassively overtake other buses risking their, passengers & passerby lives so road accidents are not astonishing. Mugging & pickpocketing onboard passengers of these buses is also a routine. Standing in these buses is a tough call because the hygiene & exude of the smell of people around is difficult to get along with. Ridesharing services help commuters big time but it is relatively expensive for the masses hence this gap has been filled by Chinese Autos (Chingchi Raksha & Bikes) for a daily commute resulting in the congestion on roads & this is how dance with the devil started on the roads & driving on road is kind of a death wish because you have to go through this organized riot or mayhem on daily basis. Whereas traffic lights or signals in this city are just a suggestion, not a traffic law for the commuters it entirely depends on the drivers to observe them or violate them because nobody is going to make them culpable for violations of it yet they will have to pay fine for wrong parking if they come in the ambit of contractors who are deployed for lifting vehicles.
Infrastructures
The
phrase is sufficient to depict Karachi’s infrastructures condition “Sight of
the apocalypse”. You could hardly find the one-kilometer straight smooth road
in the city rather there are pits after pits that will be shaken up not only
your body but your soul too. On top of that these roads are occupied with
encroachments which make it difficult to find a place to move in your vehicles,
it is adventure a roller coaster ride in its true sense. Most of the streets
overflowed with sewerage or rain stagnant water where it is almost difficult to
walk so forget about spending life you just need to survive.
Running
Water Crisis
Shortage
of water is a problem in different parts of the world as climate change
intensifies & infrastructures fail. Karachi has grown so big so fast &
currently, it can only supply half the water the city needs from over 70
kilometers away through the pipe. Karachi is in line to become a water-stress
city by 2025. One of the core reasons that intensifies this problem is
Karachi's old Infrastructure which losses a third of its daily water that moves
through pipes into the city just imagine when every drop of water really counts
it is painful to see 30% to 40% of its water is wasted because of pipe cracked
& leaks. Some of the water is also stolen by the hydrant/Water mafia that
runs with political patronage where they charge the amount to refill the tankers
& stolen by those poor people who don’t get water through the pipe. There is
visible mismanagement & Infrastructure problem on the other hand weather of Karachi is worsening & extreme events recorded in the recent past like
massive heat waves that killed hundreds of people in the city that couldn’t
provide its people with enough water & because of that it is predicted in
future people will die because of contaminated water OR dearth of water But the
government is not interested to raise awareness among people about scarcity
& polluted water let alone taking any concrete measures to resolve this
issue. People who are aware couldn’t do anything because the system doesn’t
support them & the majority of households in one of the biggest city in the
world are compelled to depend on drilling water & with time levels of
groundwater become even lower as Karachi is currently using groundwater at a
faster rate than it can replenish it so these resource is drying up.Water is a
global crisis & its consequence is detrimental hence government must
address it on an urgent basis & ensure the people of Karachi have
consistent access to clean water because the alarm bells are ringing.
Solid Waste Management
Civic sense of the people of Karachi has completely depleted & the only thing that increasing is its population. As people are dumping their wastes in the open area that creating health issues & sanitation problems for their vicinities & families but people are preoccupied with other sets of problems that they are clueless or callous in their behaviors of littering that transformed the city into a big heap of garbage.
Would conclude this post by mentioning when people are unaware of their fundamental & political rights & instead of asking questions to their elected representatives & make them answerable for their actions being happy with their little work & being persistent to ignore their wrongdoing so such a situation is inevitable. Will the people of Karachi remain awaited till the crack of doom OR take their responsibilities to enforce their elected representatives to do work for the betterment of this city. People must know on their taxes this government's machinery runs & by their votes, these governments come into existence. Irrespective of ethnicity, sect, caste, or nation only give your votes to the local representatives of your areas that really raise genuine issues of your vicinity & city with a plan of action for solutions to these problems.
