The Disastrous Situation in Karachi
By Khalid R. Siddiqui, MD
Huron, OH
The disastrous situation in Karachi is being blamed by everyone on the previous and new governments (MQM, PPP, PTI) that ran Karachi for the past 30-40 years. I think it is not fair. In my opinion the real culprits are the people of Karachi who never forced the governments to take care of the infrastructure of the city.
If I were an elected PPP politician from Sind, then I would do the same thing, i.e., get the money from Karachi and use it in the places where I would be getting the votes from. If the supposedly educated people of Karachi are willing to put up with this disconcerting situation for decades, then why not take advantage of their stupidity?
Actually, flooding every year is a big business for many people, including the politicians. They may even be looking forward to this opportunity every year. The politicians, as usual, form a committee to handle the situation. The committee gets the money from the Federal government because of the alleged lack of funds with the provincial government. Then most of that money goes into the pockets of these politicians. The rest is divided among the contractors, equipment operators and workers – only on paper. Nothing is done on the pretext of bureaucratic hurdles – too many zones, too many organizations, no clear allocation of power, etc.
Everything is planned most professionally. On the question of showing the progress, the pet answer is ‘We are working on a long-term solution.’ In the meantime, the Army is brought in to do the cleaning. Everyone is happy. As expected, the people of Karachi forget about the whole thing and go about their business as usual and, best of all, elect the same politicians the next time.
Again, if I were an elected politician from Karachi, why should I rock the boat? After all, it has worked well for me for so many years. The situation this time, though, is a little bit different. The elites (so-called the Burger families of Karachi) who were immune to this flooding and its consequences all these years, have also been affected for the first time. One hopes that they would try to force some change, but I doubt that. In the current political and administrative setup, no long-term change is possible in Karachi. In my humble opinion there is only one of two solutions: 1. The ordinary people of Karachi must take the situation in their own hands, start the gherao of the politicians, make their lives miserable, heckle them wherever they find them, don’t give up until something is physically done, and don’t elect them the next time. 2. Run Karachi from the Federal capital or impose the Governor’s rule in Karachi. Short of these drastic measures things will be the same next year also. Save my post and read it again the same time next year.
