Karachi, Pakistan

By 

Muhammad Maqbool

So here I was, Karachi, the business capital of Pakistan. Home to over 20 million people from all over Pakistan covering almost all casts and creeds there are. But something was wrong; the once glittery words that were used to be associated with the city’s mention had faded in some unknown whirlwind of confusion and terrorism. So what has happened is it Fear? Or is it just a lot of “Hype” that has been promoted by the media? To answer these questions let me take you a little down my memory lane.

Being brought up in Lahore, the only image I ever got whenever I tuned into any news channel was, that the minute I would land in Karachi, either I would be robbed on gunpoint or would be shot, becoming a victim of racism. But No! This was definitely not the case. On this point I would like to thank our wonderful newly free media who instead of promoting the positive side of the story, have always tended to promote the dark side. I was not robbed on landing in Karachi and I was definitely not shot, thank God. So back to my story, my family had moved to this new city and I was here to stay. My family has had a Carpet business established in Karachi long before partition, but for me this was the first time in Karachi at the age of 19, because for starters, I never cared for this part of the heirloom. So now that I was here, I decided on my daredevil instinct to explore the city.

My first few explorations led me to the general conclusion that in this big city “Nobody Interferes”, everybody is so much engulfed in their own business’s and life to the point that nobody has even a split second to think over what is happening in and around them, this is actually something positive because nobody is actually medalling in your life. At the same time the other conclusion was that the “City Never Slept”, whether it be 3am in the morning or 3pm in the afternoon you would find families, couples and loners in public places, coffee shops, food courts and Malls. This is something I didn’t see either in Lahore where after midnight the traffic on road starts to thin off and Islamabad, where, well there is nothing after 8 in the evening. Now coming back to Karachi, the city has more places to offer than any other city of Pakistan, the biggest attraction being the warm water Beach of course. Food, well to be honest, the food is that really baffled me. Being a born Lahori, I belong to the class that never compromises on food and taste and these are the two things we believe can be found only in Lahore, but my explorations led me to a strange conclusion, I know this is a suicidal thing to say, but Karachi has more Taste to offer than Lahore itself.

A living city, then where the HELL was the problem, I mean everyday even in Karachi when I used to flicker through news channels the same news prevailed on every news channel, “Target Killing”, “Political Demonstrations”, “Boycotts and Strikes”…. But why was all this happening and if it was happening why? The people of the city have almost everything; the business capital that controls 38% of the country’s wealth, but still no Peace. Curiosity plagued me to look deep for at least a simple answer to a simple question, why? And to what extent?

It so happened that a senior member of the Jang News Group was a close family friend, on asking him the same question, I was given a simple answer, the city had grown more than its limits, what was happening even in the outskirts of the city was considered to be happening inside the city, even when nothing was happening at all. Well this could be considered a diplomatic statement, but honestly, this is idiotic, to believe that something is not wrong in this city when something has definitely gone badly wrong.

Well to me the Answer is simple, Karachi holds a population consisting of people coming from all creeds of Pakistan and like the difference’s that have caused division in the rest of the country this beautiful city too has fallen victim to the same problem but just on a lower scale. The city has been divided into power centers by Political Parties, who fight at the price of killing innocent civilians. The Pashtun led by ANP, the Urdu-Speaking led by MQM, the Punjabi and Sindhi speaking by branches of PPP and PML. There is nothing to hide here; you can see the colors of these parties spread across the city, marking starting and ending points of their respective regions. But the only problem is why the people of Karachi have to suffer the indecencies of these lunatics who just want to retain power not even thinking a bit what disastrous harm they have already bought to the image of the once capital city of Pakistan. It’s sad but this is the reality. The city might not be centuries old, but it still holds a key position in the minds of all Pakistanis. But alas, the city’s glamour has almost faded and is on the brink of extinction, if not saved now by the people living in and outside this city which is considered to be the “Heart of Pakistan”, it will soon stop beating, and you know what happens to the body when the heart stops working. 

Muhammad Maqbool

BBA II Sec H

09U0617