Alright, we’ve all heard it from time to time that port city of Karachi is being talibanized. Details include the afghan refugees and other pashtun ethnicities settling down in what is labeled as illegal land which does not belong to them.
So today, was watching a talk show and Asfand Yar Wali was talking on this issue and this is some of what he had to say:
The movement of people from frontier to Karachi is not an overnight thing. It has been going on for a very long time. When you have been left without a family because all your relatives have been forced to leave (due to war/bombing/taliban threat) or have been killed. You would naturally turn to some place where you know someone. So many who sit on the bus leaving frontier are headed to karachi because they have a relative or someone they know who lives there.
Why live on illegal land?
When you have faced the hardest of times, and your children are starving. You are fed up with the Govt and system in place, you won’t care about the logistics or ethics or lawful angle of things, most basic of which is land. So you do what others who settled there did, you erect a tent and it is home.
What is the issue? Is it talibanization?
Yes and no. Yes because some people turn to crime. No, because it is more of an illegal land issue than anything. Both the accuser and the accused are at fault. Both are trying to grab any land they can. If the accuser is able to grab the land, it becomes government property, but if the accused grabs it and is able to maintain it, then he becomes a victim who is wrongfully being evicted.
Now, i request you all to please be rational. Leave the usual rhetoric and hate outside when replying.
Here’s what i want to ask. Does the city govt. provide them with alternative housing? Should it provide them with alternative housing?
The way i see it, if the MQM government resorts to provide them temporary or alternative housing, it will be doing two things. 1: it can pride itself on the fact that is truly a public party working for the emprovished citizens of the city, hence a party for the ordinary man. 2: it will send a vibrant message to others across the nation that notions set in place about the party are a history that should not be used to judge the current party and where it stands today.
It is costly, no doubt. But, sometimes to win some, you have to lose some. This way the city government might actually open the rest of Pakistan to its membership for party and attract and appeal to the people.
Other parts of the world have programs in place, such as public housing projects which are basically high rises that are leased to low income families at very affordable rates.
May be the city government of Karachi can do the same, it will earn a little revenue and it won’t have to resort to violence or threats to move the people from certain areas such as Sohrab Goth.
What do you say about it?