Violence in Karachi Is It Political, Ethnic or Religious Conflict? by Zulfiqar Ali
Violence in Karachi Is It Political, Ethnic or Religious Conflict? by Zulfiqar Ali
Violence in Karachi Is It Political, Ethnic or Religious Conflict? by Zulfiqar Ali
3 (2012)
In this paper, I will try to explore the main causes of ethnic conflicts in Pakistan.
After defining the term, I will provide a brief review of the history, in the
subsequent parts I will focus on main ethnic groups, the major issues in ethnic
conflicts in Karachi, the tendency affecting changes in ethnic issues, and the
implications of these changes for national integration in Pakistan.
. In the terms of Etymologically, the word 'ethnic' is derived from the Greek word
ethnikos; which referred to major population groups who share common racial
and cultural qualities; Ethnicity designated to the group behavior of members in
quest of a common heritage with inherent individual variations1. It is also an
indication of one's own insight as the member of the particular group. According
to the Prof. Dawa Norbu, "an ethnic group is discrete social organization within
which mass mobilization and social communication may be affected. And
ethnicity provided the potent raw material for nationalism that makes sense only
to the members of that ethnic group. Its primary function is to differentiate the
group members from the generalized others"2. In other words, ethnicity provides
the fundamentals of nationalism. Nationalism proves to be strong binding force in
the nations, comprising of single ethnicity in majority.
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Zulfiqar Ali
Pakistan belong the third type of country which has a leading ethnic group
comprising of fifty to seventy-five percent of the total population, the Punjabis
are almost fifty-six percent of the total population. In Pakistan, the provincial
assertion based on the ethnic distinctiveness became prominent in the decade of
90s. The problem of ethnic isolation has been boiling in Baluchistan and NWFP
since the 70s. Likewise, the Mohajirs of Pakistan were rising as a distinctive
ethnic group with the growth of Mohajir Qoumi Movement (MQM) since the 80s
as a major force in urban areas of Sindh, especially in the biggest city of the
country, Karachi, and in the adjacent city, Hyderabad.
The ruling class of Pakistan has always wanted to employ the ideology of
Pakistani nationalism against the demands of different ethnic groups for enhanced
provincial autonomy. The elite class always takes any such demand as a
conspiracy to divide and disintegrate Pakistan, and this behavior has also led to
assertion of many regional identities.
Pakistan has been confronted with one of the gravest ethnic conflicts of her sixty-
four years life. In 2010 alone, 1,247 people, as compared to 8012009, were killed
in its major city, Karachi4. Ethnic divergence in the province of Sindh is almost
complete, and in Baluchistan it has traumatized the traditional fraternity between
different ethnic groups. The situation of law and order due to ethnic clashes have
shattered economic activities in urban Sindh where there has been evidence of a
transfer of capital to other regions and almost a complete halt on the part of
foreign investment. Moreover billions of rupees are lost each year due to recurrent
strikes.
The image of Pakistan emerging from its ethnic condition is revealed by its
economic and political situation. Conventionally, Pakistan's ethnic multiplicity
has been defined in terms of the existence of the four historical "ethnic groups,"
the Punjabis, the Sindhis, the Pushtoons and the Baloch, the Urdu-speaking
people (the mohajirs), and many smaller ethnic/ linguistic groups. Recently,
though, a political party representing the Urdu-speaking people in urban Sindh
has insisted on the recognition of "nationality" status while there has been a
constant demand from a part of the population in Punjab for the identification of
Siraiki-speaking people as a distinct "nationality."
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Pakistaniaat: A Journal of Pakistan Studies Vol. 4, No. 3 (2012)
Karachi was small village of fishermen surrounded by mud ramparts. It had two
doors: towards Arabian Sea was situated the door of salted water (kharadar), and
facing the Lyari river was the door of sweet water (mithadar). The town of
kalachi-jo-goth was founded in 1729, in the memory of a local fisherman5.
Karachis port was an important knot in the regional proto-globalized economy
since the eighteenth century, linking Sindh and Punjab with the Persian Gulf and,
further, with China and Africa6. Between 1947 and 1951, the enormous
migration of refugees (majority of them was Urdu speaking) from India, who also
to be known as Mohajirs, brought Karachi under intense demographic pressure
but it also provided it with a highly competent workforce and an experienced
bureaucracy7. On the twenty-second of May, 1948, Karachi was formally made
the capital of Pakistan.
The Afghan jihad in 80s and ongoing war against terrorism in the northwestern
parts of the country also brought to Karachi a flow of arms and drugs along with a
heavy population influx from those part of the country. The situation produced a
culture of violence in the city, especially in its youth for whom Russian TT-
pistols became the hottest commodity in town9. Since the beginning of Afghan
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Zulfiqar Ali
jihad, in the 1990s, and after the fall of the 9/11, Karachis ethnic conflicts appear
to have been succeeded by sectarianconflicts.
From 1987 to present day , the MQM strongholds are located in the areas of
District Central and District East, such as Azizabad, Federal B Area, Nazimabad,
Liaqatabad, New Karachi and Gulshan-e Iqbal. District South has been under the
influence of the PPP, which also has existence in the district of Malir. District
West, has remained under the control of the ANP, which is particularly influential
in the Baldia Pathan and Qasba colonies. Another political force in the city is a
rebel faction of the MQM, the MQM (Haqiqi), which is not significant today,,had
converted the Landhi, Shah Faisal Colony and Lines Area into no-go areas for
Altaf Hussains supporters after the launching of Operation Clean-Up in 199211.
The rise of the MQM in 1984, on the scene national politics was quite swift and
remarkable. It is an urban, youthful and organizationally well-knit party.12 Its
leadership and most of its members belongs to the lower middle class. Since the
late 1980s, MQM has remained influential in the urban parts of Sindh. It has
achieved significant electoral support in Karachi and Hyderabad, the two major
cities of Sindh.
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Pakistaniaat: A Journal of Pakistan Studies Vol. 4, No. 3 (2012)
The rising death toll gives the impression that the instability of Karachi has been
gradually ascending. Violence in the city is in effect seems a socio-ethnic
phenomenon, which is intensified by immense weaponization of the city. Efforts
for de-weaponization in the past have produced only diverse results, due to
variation in demand and supply of weapons.
Although, in the pre-Afghan war era, weapons made in northwestern area of the
country were much in demand across the country, with the induction of a legacy
of the Afghan war, the lethal assault rifle Kalashnikov, the law enforcement
efforts suffered a serious setback. There is no lack of laws but what is needed is
their enforcement in true sense. Secondly, as we discussed earlier, the influx of
migrants into Karachi, served to further fuse the situation of group politics in the
city (mainly consisting of the ethno-linguistic groups).
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Zulfiqar Ali
If the recent wave of violence and brutality is allowed to continue, peace will
become more impossible; keeping in view that the Pakistani Taliban extremists
are trying to bring a complete chaos to the country. Moreover, there has been an
increase in sectarian sensitivities after the attack on the Ashura Procession.
Interior Minister of Pakistan Mr. Rehman Malik has held that deployment of the
army to control the situation is not desirable in Karachi because the government
has give powers to the Rangers to deal with the situation. However, there are
suspicions about this paramilitary forces ability to deal with the problem, mainly
because the three parties (MQM, ANP and PPP) involved in the situation are in
the ruling coalition government. Urgent countermeasures are needed against the
elements that are leading these brutal killings. The government should put into
effect a course of action without delay in order to restore peace in the city and call
in the army if needed. At the same time, it should do long-standing arrangements
to keep the state of affairs under control.
1
Singh
k.
Sudhir,
Ethnicity
and
Regional
Aspirations
In
Pakistan
http://www.jammu-
th
kashmir.com/insights/insight20020101d.html)
Retrieved
online
on
18
march,2011
2
Ibid
3
ibid
4
http://tribune.com.pk/story/94219/2010-karachis-most-violent-year-since-1995/
Retrieved
on
th
18
march,2011
5
Sohrab
K.H.
Katrak,
Karachi.
That
was
the
Capital
of
Sindh,
Lahore,
1963.
6
Laurent
Gayer
A
divided
city.
Ethnic
and
religious
conflicts
in
Karachi,
Pakistan
retrieved
th
online
on
13
March,
2011.
http://www.ceri-sciences-po.org
7
ibid
8
ibid
9
Larrry
Goodson,
The
Talibanization
of
Pakistan,
New
York/Basingstoke
:
Palgrave/Macmillan,
2002.
10
Laurent
Gayer
A
divided
city.
Ethnic
and
religious
conflicts
in
Karachi,
Pakistan
retrieved
th
online
on
13
March,
2011.
http://www.ceri-sciences-po.org
11
ibid
12
ibid
13
MOHAMMAD
WASEEM
,Ethnic
Conflict
in
Pakistan:
The
Case
of
MQM,
The
Pakistan
Development
Review
35
:
4
Part
II
(Winter
1996)
pp.
617629
14
ibid
15 th
http://pak-news.net/targeted-killings-in-karachi/)
retrieved
online
on
17
of
March,
2011
16 th
http://pak-news.net/targeted-killings-in-karachi/)
retrieved
online
on
17
of
March,
2011
83