Re: The Karachi Taliban issue
the framing of this issue along ethnic lines is idiotic. Both ANP and MQM need to stop doing that.
Immigrants have always been coming to Karachi. Slum/informal/illegal communities are the norm in big cities, and yea criminal elements use the lax crime enforcement to their advantage. To restrict the flow of immigrants of any ethnicity is beyond stupid, and therefore not surprising the MQM have taken to advocacy of that.
The issue of Talebanisation is infact driven by hardline religious groups, many of whom are based in urdu-speaking communities too. The issue of Talebanization is the fact that there is a sizeable number of armed young people, who wish to impose the same kind of hardline religious and cultural bigotry we see in Swat and FATA in Karachi. This includes people of different ethnicities. To talk about immigrants and land grabbers etc is besides the point.
And yes, as far as slum/immigrant communities goes, the city govt needs to do more. Also private initiatives such as the Orangi Pilot Project need to be encouraged