JUBAIL, SAUDI ARABIA: Karachi has once again plunged into a cycle of perpetual violence. A chain of incidents in the last few days has widened the ethnic divide in the city. The so-called political parties who claim to represent Karachi are nothing more than armed ethnic groups whose sense of insecurity forces them to display their street power to keep other competing groups at bay.
Though we do not like to accept it, but it is a harsh reality that the people’s frustration has now taken the form of indulging in senseless violence. Karachi’s residents have no role in its management and development. The ruling Pakistan Peoples Party has not held local bodies elections during its tenure and has run the city like a tribal enclave. However, someone now has to speak up — this city of 18 million people needs its own representatives to run its management and security apparatus so that Karachi is rid of the criminal gangs who indulge in drug dealings, kidnappings, extortion and violence. If Karachi continues to be run like a colony, then one should expect recurring bouts of violence.
Masood Khan
Published in The Express Tribune, March 31st, 2012.
