For once the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and Awami National Party (ANP) see eye to eye. Both parties rejected a proposal by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) to divide Karachi into three separate districts.
The HRCP held a press conference on Wednesday to offer a proposal on how to tackle disagreements over running Karachi administratively. It proposed making Lyari-Keamari and Malir two separate districts with the remaining 15 towns clubbed together as a Karachi district.
MQM’s Haider Abbas Rizvi critisised this formula as drawing lines on the basis of ethnicity which could inflame tensions in an already fractured city. “Karachi is already divided into 18 towns,” he said. “We are in favour of the devolution of power and not centralisation. There is no need for bifurcation as every town has its own administrative control over local affairs.” The MQM favours the 2001 local government system that works like this.
Lyari, for example, has always been a Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) stronghold. “A PPP-backed candidate becomes the nazim there, so what is the point of this suggestion?” he asked.
For its part, the HRCP said that the proposal was meant to address the grievances of people who believe that the last MQM-backed local government did not spend money on development of their neighbourhoods.
For the MQM the HRCP’s draft holds no weight as it and the PPP are in talks over the future shape of local government.
The ANP rejected the HRCP’s draft basd on the reasoning that it was not an organisation that could give political recommendations. The party’s Qadir Khan said that the ANP wanted a single system for the whole country and it could not support two local government systems in one province. The ANP wants five districts in Karachi, the restoration of the previous status of Hyderabad. He also complained that the HRCP only took the stance taken by two parties and ignored the reservations expressed by all other stakeholders. For its part, the HRCP had clearly stated that it had put together the draft after talking to all parties.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 14th, 2011.
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The trio interests are difficult to accommodate. As the people are voting on the ethnic lines, so the city should be demarcated in the same manner. Urdu speaking are voting for MQM, Sindhi, Baloch are voting for PPP and Pashtuns are voting for ANP. There is no cut across ethnic lines voting. Pashtuns should be represented by Pashtuns, Urdu speaking by the Urdu speaking and Sindhi/Balochs by PPP. So the city administration should also be so tailored. This will end the invasions of other territories, adventurism and blame game. Every community will be responsible for the development of its own people
ANP knows nothing about how to govern large cities. This is not the 1800s. Maybe they think so as close to the Afghan border, 1800s was a modern era for them! So the MQM led government is supposed to not have spent money on some areas. Gee what a novel area. This complaint can be found in many a city. Consider NYC, London, paris etc. list is long! With a decentralized system a framework is set up for more funding to neighborhoods, not less as in the case of centralized systems. That being said some areas do still end up being perceived as getting more. All you have to do is to tinker with the formula;not throw away the baby with the bathwater. But when you know nothing about local governance structures you make assumptions like the HRCP!