Everyday closures: The city lives but Numaish shuts down

Bomb blasts and traffic aren't the only things bothering the residents.

KARACHI: In Karachi, there are two prime locations to hold protests, demonstrations and rallies - in front of the Karachi Press Club or at Numaish on MA Jinnah Road.

The press club has a very central location with easy access and coverage for several newspaper and television journalists.

Numaish, however, is an area cut-off of the rest of the city. It is not so difficult for the media to get there, but it creates problems for the people who live there and have lived there for years.

With a rise in religious and political activities in the area many residents decided to pack up and leave the area for good.



For Lubna Abad it was about keeping her family safe. While she has spent more than 20 years of her life living in an apartment in Numaish, an incident in 2006 forced her to move out.

The incident she's talking about is the Nishtar Park blast of 2006 where more than 50 people were left dead and many others were injured.

"In retaliation to the blast, the petrol station right next to my apartment block was set on fire," she said. "We were afraid that the oil tankers, which were parked right below us, would catch fire and the building would collapse." She added that most of the building's residents, including her family, had run to relatives who lived nearby as there was no electricity either.

The next day, she said, they went home and found out that their apartment had been broken into and robbed. She added that within the next couple of weeks she moved out of the area with her family and has never looked back.

Syed Ali Raza, a grocer in Garden, says things have become difficult in the last couple of years. "The Muharram procession has passed through these streets since before Partition," he said. "But the recent political and sectarian violence have made it difficult for us to live and work here."

The traffic

"I don't leave my office till I know MA Jinnah Road is open and not blocked, closed or diverting traffic," said Muhammad Dawer, who has been a resident of Numaish for the last 15 years.

The blasts and traffic isn't the only thing bothering the residents of Numaish. Their other big problem is the noise.

"It is hard to get a good night's sleep here," said university student Saud Ahsan. "In August, they have national songs blasting at top volumes all day and all night. In Muharram, they have nohas playing on repeat and in Rabbiul Awal all we hear is naats." He added that the worst were days when there was a big rally taking place because all you heard was people screaming on microphones.

What is Numaish Chowrangi

In 1959, there was an international exhibition at the area which is now called Numaish.



More than a decade ago, Numaish was known for its 'chowrangi' which connected the area to MA Jinnah Road. Even though the chowrangi was demolished and replaced by a traffic signal, people continue to refer to it as Numaish Chowrangi.

Looking back, political rallies were usually held at Nishtar Park - it is where Muttahida Qaumi Movement's Altaf Hussain came up on stage in 1985 and asked his party members and their families to donate and help the party's cause. But in recent years this has changed. Political and religious parties now want to hold their protests, rallies and demonstrations at Numaish - the area around the intersection. This shift has changed the dynamics of the area drastically and came about the time Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf's Imran Khan had a rally at Numaish in December 2011.

Saved by the bell

The residents of Numaish aren't the only ones who suffer. Students who attend educational institutes in Saddar are forced to skip important lectures and make up classes if the area is shut due to a rally or protest.

Aiman Naqshbandi, a student at the Institute of Business Administration, said that most of her classes were cancelled every time a rally is scheduled to go through the Numaish area. "The roads are blocked so teachers and students can't reach the campus," she said. "There are times we have to wait at school for hours waiting for our class only to find out that it was cancelled because of an unannounced protest."

This ain’t nothing but a traffic jam

There are times that public transport owners refuse to take passengers who need to be dropped off around MA Jinnah Road. If, somehow, they do agree, then they charge exorbitant amounts of money. "It is really simple. If Numaish is closed, why will we go there," said Annu Baloch, a rickshaw driver. "We don't want to get there and get shot." The road that connects Capri Cinema, Britto Road and Shahrae Quaideen are usually blocked during protests and this affects traffic all around the city.  According to Noorullah Wafan, a police constable assigned to MA Jinnah Road, this month 15 days were devoted to protests by different parties. Wafan said that as constables they find themselves in a quandary. "We can't let people cross the barricades for any reason," he said. "If we do, then we are questioned by protestors."

Published in The Express Tribune, August 25^th, 2014.