The Sindhi-Pathan conflict

The last few weeks have seen a series of ‘ethnic’ incidents in Karachi and Hyderabad. Thugs posing as Sindhi nationalists have been harassing and terrorising Pathan businesses, forcing them to close down. These incidents have provoked a reaction from Pathans. Lives have been lost and properties destroyed.

Is this what the country needs at this time? We are already facing a raft of problems — rampant inflation, falling living standards and a potential loan default that would severely limit our ability to import essentials such as fuel and food. Instead of trying to come together, we strive to destroy each other. Each Pathan hotel closed means that 10 to 20 people don’t earn; any bus or truck stopped means that 5 or 6 families cannot put food on the table; and when areas of the city are closed down, hundreds if not thousands are affected.

It is always difficult to understand or explain violence, to understand what makes people turn on each other to kill and destroy. Nevertheless, it may be useful to start by looking at some of the causes for the events that have transpired.

Karachi has always been a magnet for immigrants — from India, interior Sindh, Punjab, K-P, Balochistan, G-B, and Afghanistan. These immigrants often leave their old homes to look for better opportunities, a better life for themselves and for their children. In most cases, they make a success of it. Each wave of immigrants also brings with it different culture, food habits and music, which has helped make Karachi, despite all its problems, an inclusive and diverse city. The city is indeed a melting pot where hard work and effort pays off.

But like all major mega-cities, access to accommodation is hard and most new migrants tend to move to areas inhabited by people from their community, tribe, or village. This has created a patchwork of ghettos across the city. Also, jobs for new migrants do not come easy and they tend to find opportunities in activities managed by their own groups. As a result, ethnicities tend to specialise in certain activities. For example, majority of Pathans work in tea shops, transport companies and as construction workers. Karachi is a crowded city and proximity between different groups creates competition for local resources such as land, water, sewage services, schooling and healthcare facilities. Similarly, the business environment is not easy, especially for small enterprises who have to cope with a lack of rules and an ineffective implementation system. This creates space for local mafias who step in to provide dispute resolution systems and guarantee ‘law and order’. Many people living in precarious conditions, such as jhuggi colonies, as well as many small and medium businesses, prefer to regularly pay their ‘bhatta’.

Despite myriad problems, most times a precarious balance is maintained between competing groups and somehow things work. People sort out conflicts, businesses work, and life goes on. But demons lurk just below the surface feeding on feelings of deprivation and injustices. And when these take on an ethnic, religious or tribal spin. This can create a situation of high tension, and in such conditions, psychopaths — usually chest-thumping young men — emerge from the woodwork to kills, wound, main and destroy.

But why has this happened now? Possibly the overall economic situation has increased the level of anger and frustration, and has widened existing fault lines. Maybe it has aggravated further by the hateful political climate in the country, with major parties spending most of their time calling each other names and hurling accusations against each other. Or maybe it is something more sinister — a way to distract public attention from the long-standing and chronic problems of Karachi exacerbated by the recent urban floods. Responsibility for limiting and controlling these incidents falls on local leaders and on authorities including LEAs. But it is essential that these local leaders, as well as major political parties, avoid the temptation to stoke these fires of anger and hatred.

Will they do so? It is difficult to be optimistic. A culture of blame and hate has taking over Pakistan. Everything that is wrong is the fault of someone else — the US, the West, India — and, if not, then it is the fault of the Mohajirs, the Pathans, the Punjabis or the Sindhi; or if not, then it must be the Ahmedis, the Shias, the Sunnis, the Christians or the Hindus.

This culture of blame, victimhood and hatred is particularly painful to people of my age who grew up in the Karachi of the 1960s and 1970s. At the time it was a peaceful multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, multi-religious metropolis. At schools and universities, and in the workplace, someone’s faith or ethnic background had absolutely no relevance whatsoever for how they were treated.

Undistracted by hate and conflict, Karachi was a dynamic, well-administered, fast growing city. We were set to become the economic and cultural hub of the region; PIA were really great people to fly with; and our art, drama and fashion events were world class.

Can we recover and get back to the development pathway that we have wandered away from? I believe that we can. After all, there is little doubt that Karachiites are strong, resilient and enterprising.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 25^th, 2022.

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