On a Recent Trip to Karachi
By Dr Syed Amir
Bethesda, MD
“Karachi is a war zone”, I was reminded by close friends and family members when they heard of my plans to travel there to attend a family wedding in mid-December. “Travel at this time, at best, is ill-advised,” they counseled with genuine concern. Nowadays, few tourists travel to Pakistan. Most do so to visit family, attend weddings or take care of some urgent business. The city is constantly in the news in the international media, not for the attractions or worldly pleasures it offers, mostly for its ethnic and religious strife, targeted killings and rampant lawlessness. Unfortunately, all appealing features of the city have now been overshadowed by the unremitting violence.
It is worth recalling how Karachi has been transformed during the past decades. My wife and I lived in what used to be a very likeable city in the sixties during Ayub Khan’s benign autocratic rule. Conditions were peaceful and time moved at an unhurried pace, a few incidences of ethnic violence notwithstanding. Suicide bombings and mindless terror in the name of religion were unknown. The city enjoyed a vibrant cultural and social life, with business and industry thriving. Many now believe that the decade during Ayub Khan’s presidency was the best period that the country has ever known.
Travel to Pakistan requires completion of a number of formalities, not the least a visa and airline reservations. Since my Pakistan Origin Card had recently expired, the visa office at the Pakistan Embassy in Washington advised me to apply for a three-month visa at a fee of $120. The application was processed promptly, except that the three-month period of validity started even before the passport was returned to me. Overall, the embassy runs an efficient and reliable operation, and the staff is courteous; a pleasant surprise.
Only a few airlines service Karachi these days. Besides, PIA which has an atrocious reputation, Turkish, Qatar, and Emirate Airlines are among the more prominent ones. The period covering Christmas and New Year is very busy and the fares highest, with scant choice of travel dates available. Most international airlines now prefer to fly nonstop to destinations, with planes as full as possible, saving them much fuel cost and landing charges.
I chose Emirate airlines based on its excellent reputation and its convenient arrival time of midday at Karachi. The city’s poor law-and-order situation has made the arrival and departure times unusually important for the passengers as well as those who come to meet them. The flight time to Dubai, the only stopover on the way from Washington’s Dulles airport, was nearly thirteen hours. Sitting in a confined space for this long made the time seem interminable. I prefer the practice in the olden days when planes stopped several times on the way and the passengers had the opportunity to come out, relax and stretch their legs.
I returned to Karachi after less than two years. My last trip was a farewell visit to my sister who was terminally ill. This time, it was on a happier occasion, as my nephew’s son was getting married. Arriving at Karachi, the airport had a familiar if slightly worn out look. Life outside flowed smoothly in the mid-afternoon sun, as if untouched by the ongoing turmoil. The roads were congested, traffic unruly, and chaotic, all reassuring, familiar features of the city. It has defied thus far repeated, ignoble attempts by terrorists and extremists to break its soul and devastate its economy.
Although nobody knows for sure, Karachi’s population has reportedly exceeded 21 million -- many countries in the world don’t have these many people living in them. Resultantly, all parts of the city are not equally or simultaneously affected by the violence. Those populated mostly by the poor and disadvantaged have a disproportionate share of it. Fortunately, I was staying in an area which has remained largely free of major problems; however, no areas in Karachi are considered truly safe. Several times during my stay, wild rumors spread, prompting shops and markets to quickly shut down. Magically, the following morning, life resumed fully as if nothing unusual had happened the previous night.
A special menace plaguing the city are the motorcycle riders, as many crimes, targeted killings, robberies and terrorist acts are committed by them. The practice is so common that instinctively one feels somewhat alarmed, especially at night, at the sight of a motorcycle with two passengers approaching. Of course, most such riders are innocent citizens, merely transporting some family member in an inexpensive way. At night, people don’t stop at traffic lights for fear of being robbed by gun-wielding young men, with no scruples about shooting. Smart phones and their owners are particular targets of these crimes.
In the absence of other venues of entertainment, weddings and celebratory events have become the focus of social interactions. Among the rich, weddings are lavish affairs, with elaborate dinners routinely lingering well past midnight. I marveled at the resilience of guests who braved the wintery nights, traveled long distances to come, undeterred by the precarious security situation. On the positive side, these gatherings offer a valuable opportunity to refresh bonds with friends and family members, often living long distances apart. It is also gratifying that cultural and literary life is not dead in the city. I attended an excellent Urdu conference, well organized and attended, at the Arts Council. At about the same time, a book fare, an exhibition of a large number of new books, was in progress.
The problems that Karachi faces are multifaceted and complex. Display of religiosity is at an all time high, with mosques overflowing, and the country as a whole has turned distinctly more conservative. Paradoxically, these trends have not been translated into a peaceful social environment or emergence of a compassionate society. Communal violence is on the rise. Shias are especially targeted and killed with impunity by extremists Sunni groups, such as Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. Being a Sunni, however, is no guarantee of safety either, as heads of seminaries have been murdered by gangs from rival sects. Law enforcement agencies, overseen by weak provincial and central governments, are helpless to enforce the law or catch the culprits. The low-paid police constables are in constant fear of their own lives, let alone able to protect anyone else’s. During my stay, five young female heath workers were massacred for administering polio vaccine in a poor section of the city. The vaccination campaign is maligned by the Taliban to be part of some sinister Western conspiracy to make Muslims sterile.
While Karachi’s problems are real, a visitor to the city is far more likely to suffer from health problems, rather than become a victim of random violence. Of course, it is different for those who live there and have learnt to survive among the chaos. They deserve all our admiration.
