Karachi's clan conflicts
By Bilal Baloch
Thursday, October 13, 2011 - 11:03 AM
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Ibn-e-Insha, the 20th century Pakistani poet wrote, "Iss shehar main ji ko lagana kiya?/Weshi ko sakoon se kiya matlab?" ("Why commit yourself to this city?/What interest do tyrants have with peace?") Although I was living in Karachi some 30 years after his burial there, both of these rhetorical questions stayed with me practically every moment of my time spent in the city. Last month I returned from Karachi, where I spent the summer researching the demographics behind the urban violence that has wracked Karachi for years, but picked up again in earnest.
It is only quite recently that Karachi has come under serious discussion at the international level, yet the factors driving violence and killings in the city this year have been present for at least the past 25 years, and their roots go back even further. And still, there has not been any notable progress in creating a lasting response. The police remain weak, the local and national governments still periodically raise the prospect of "bringing in the army," and leaders of political parties sit comfortably while an ever-increasing number of their minions meet brutal ends.
And while there is much that ails Pakistan besides Karachi, what happens in the city is in part a microcosm of what is tormenting the country as a whole: feeble security, over-population, poor public transportation and housing, weak law and order, abuse of public services by the wealthy and powerful, illegal land-grabbing and squatter settlements, pollution so pervasive that it contaminates food and water for all, ethnic divisions, sectarian divisions, meager education; in short, institutional inadequacies on a grand scale.
Yet institutional "failure," is in some ways a hyperbolic assessment. After all, this is also a city that has provided space for the smallest, and largest, businesses to prosper; a city that grants unrivalled port access to everyone from fishermen to NATO ships; a city that is home to prolific writers, poets, humorists, agriculturalists, entrepreneurs, divine restaurants, a growing, yet hugely talented, blogosphere, and a history that witnessed Alexander the Great, Mohammad Bin Qasim (the Umayyad General who set his sights on the revered Silk Road trade route), and Sir Charles Napier (a British General who conquered the province of Sindh) uncontrollably drawn to the City of Lights. And it is in this paradoxical, puzzling, and ambivalent sense that one must strive to understand Karachi, and beyond it Pakistan, or resign oneself to understanding neither.
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Despite Pakistan's heterogeneity, one aspect of the country that demonstrates some homogeneity is the universal nature of the "clan-based" system of allegiance that is ingrained in most Pakistanis. This system has been recognized for some time, and was articulated recently, and most clearly, by the scholar Anatol Lieven in his book, Pakistan: A Hard Country. Beyond the traditional clan culture based on local identity that pervades Pakistan's villages and tribes, one can also view the army as a clan, nationalist groups as clans, political parties as clans, sects as clans, among countless others. All promote self-interest and root faith in their clan above other, ostensibly higher, metaphysical pursuits. The vast number of "clans" results in a vast number of different perspectives and perceptions of governance and how the country is -- and should be -- run. There exists no widely accepted social contract, for instance, between the central (or provincial, for that matter) authority and its people. As such, one's allegiance -- political, ethnic, sectarian, socio-economic, linguistic, or other -- will determine one's value system, which will in turn dictate where one sees the greatest problems crippling the country. And it is this variation that makes the response to debilitating political violence that we witness in Karachi difficult to measure. Many agree that it is ruining the political and social fabric of Karachi, and to a large extent, Pakistan, but consensus solutions remain elusive.
Moreover, these conflicts between "clans" take place in an environment where space is increasingly at a premium. The fight for space, a basic human need, in Karachi gives rise to the most vicious kind of violence. Violence is chosen from a set of strategies available to political actors to assert sovereignty when the threat to their survival is strongest. There are many indicators to suggest that space in Karachi can no longer spread out, only up; six-story buildings populate areas reserved for 2-story homes. Earlier this summer such a building collapsed, leading to several deaths. Ultimately, people have no choice but to stay where they are, quite literally, and endure the violence as best as they can.
Other reasons pepper the growing fight for space. During the course of my research, I spoke about the violence in Karachi with a politically active office clerk who has commuted from the Orangi Town slum (one of the largest in South Asia) to the upscale Clifton area for over a decade. His perspective was of interest to me, as he traveled daily from a home situated in one of the bloodiest parts of the city to one of its safer spaces. Having seen his cousin killed before his own eyes, and he himself having recovered from two bullet wounds, why had he not shipped off, and out, of Orangi Town? He told me about his resolve not to leave an area where he had grown up and where his family, friends and local political leaders resided. In turn, he asked: "And anyway, where would I go? This place is exploding at the seams."
Despite such static claims, not all is laborious or obligatory in Karachi. People stay in this burgeoning city because it provides an opportunity to earn incomes unequaled in the rest of Pakistan. The population of the city increased 176 percent between 1941-1951 (due mostly to partition), and then by 217 percent between 1951-1972. Such increases have fueled over-population, but they also demonstrate the opportunity Pakistanis, and others, see in the city. People continue to arrive from around the country to settle in Karachi, a city that boasts the famous saying, "the streets are littered with gold; all you have to do is pick it up." Therefore, a thread begins to emerge here, weaving together tensions over space, clan, and party for reasons historically rooted in economic opportunity. This, of course, lends itself to the idea that solutions to some of the city's problems may lay in expanding industry, and improving urban environments, in other parts of the country. However, it appears that this will only place a plaster, albeit an attractive one, over a hemorrhage.
My interviews with Karachiites also suggest that fewer people are now beginning to migrate for conventional economic opportunity in comparison with past years, as competition for business, jobs, and trade today is immense, and high operating costs have crowded out small businesses. One consequence of this shift has been the expansion of the black market economies, and more illicit activity including bribes, kidnapping, and looting to satiate the economic need that drives thousands of people to arrive in Karachi. As such, as more people arrive in the city and are subsumed by existing political groups as workers or mureeds (followers), the above-mentioned clan structures begin to consolidate, resembling a state within a state. These clans tend to be hyper-politicized, a dynamic that often leads down a dangerous path. Here, violent methods used by politicized factions, including parties themselves, become institutionalized in the absence of a civil society that is in its nascent stages, and where state institutions remain volatile. And there is little evidence to suggest that such methods would dissipate if space in Karachi were to be expanded out (as is mooted in many circles in the city) or if industry were to be built in other parts of the country to create jobs. These ills would migrate wherever clans went.
Indeed, some contend that Karachi's woes continue to arrive from the outside, be it international capital and the process of globalization, or migrants coming in from other parts of the country or region. This, of course, is untrue. Living as part of the elite slice of Karachi's society, many of the city's educated and wealthy inhabitants recall the Karachi of the pre-Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq era, where they would explore their youth in the city's discotheques and clubs, and never have to worry about guns firing at night. Theirs was a Karachi of peace and prosperity. Today as then, they have the luxury of living in plush homes guarded by private security guards and surrounded by amenities that any inhabitant of Georgetown or Kensington would blush to look at. Indeed, theirs is also a clan that does not, and for security concerns cannot, busy itself with what happens in Qasba Colony or Banaras Chowk. A blasé outlook, one might suggest, but one that affords this community the ability to look away, albeit, at times, uncomfortably. Still, in looking away, they help abet the turmoil, as it is from within their clan structures that politicos and politicized industrialists are born who in turn send out men with guns to wreak havoc in the streets and settle political scores.
What options does this leave not for the incoming migrant or elite businessman, but for the average person in Karachi? Why is it that they, who cannot hide behind the umbrella of ideology or wealth, remain resilient? Indeed, it is because of them that Karachi is populated with a silent, but growing middle-class -- an entire generation that has lived with this violence. Their resilience comes from a sense of not knowing anything different. "This will all boil over, the politicians will compromise, and things will return to normal," are things I heard regularly in my time among them in the city. Policymakers in Pakistan talk about "cleanup operations" to rid the city of "miscreants" and gangsters -- but did such operations work the last time they were tried, in the 1990s, when the government made the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and their Muhajir following their target? Or, did it work in the 1980s, when Sohrab Ghot and its surrounding areas were bulldozed to clean up the drug mafias and the largely Pashtun slums? The people of Karachi have been enduring and accepting witnesses to each of these "operations." The short memories of some may help perpetuate the city's problems, but it also affords many others a strange immunity, allowing them to live and work, day-by-day.
Insha continued in the aforementioned poem, "jis jholi main saw chayd hoay, uss jholi ka phaylana kiya?" (Metaphorically translated, "the hands you spread for blessings are so battered: what is the point now in raising them?"). The reality of Karachi remains grounded in the collective will of its inhabitants to persevere through the city's mess, rooted in their countless distinct experiences, aggregating to infuse the city with some semblance of order. Their immunity, though, also breeds resignation to any meaningful change. Though one cannot term it disinterest, a certain sense of despondency pervades the city. Most people living in Karachi want an end to the violence; history and context compel them to believe it won't end. And who can blame them? They are ruled by tyrants who have no interest in peace.
Bilal Baloch is a graduate sudent at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, where he concentrates on comparative politics and South Asia.
ASIF HASSAN/AFP/Getty Images
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Pakistan suffering from its own creation
Pakistan including Karachi, is the victim of its own creation. Pakistani governments have created, supported and sheltered umpteen terrorist outfits own its soil. The malaise of Islamic radicalism runs deep across Pakistan’s entire establishment - civilian and military as well as society.
Nobody forced Pakistani government to facilitate relocation of Osama bin Laden from Sudan to Afghanistan in 1996. Democratic government of Pakistan chose to do so of its own free will.
Nobody forced Pakistani Army and Intelligence to create what ex-CIA official Bruce Reidel called ‘this jihadist Frankenstein’ monster in 1990s. Pakistani Army and Intelligence chose to do so with the full financing provided by Pakistan’s democratic governments at the time.
Is ’poverty, lack of economic development or lack of education’ a valid excuse to promote, spawn, shelter and support umpteen terrorist outfits on Pakistani soil?
Is ’wanting strategic depth’ a valid excuse to terrorize neighbors like Pakistan terrorizes Afghanistan and India or even take over a neighbor like Pakistan took over Afghanistan in 1996 and wants to do so again once U. S. troops depart? Should India create terrorist outfits to terrorize Pakistan and take it over because India feels sandwiched between China and Pakistan?
Lawyers showered the suspected killer of a prominent Pakistani governor with rose petals when he arrived at court and an influential Muslim scholars group praised the assassination of the governor who was recommending to reform Pakistan‘s sharia laws.
The Pakistani parliament’s joint session convened on 5/13/2011 after Osama’s killing and ended after adopting a unanimous resolution condemning the American raid on the Abbottabad compound in which al Qaeda chief was killed.
Pakistani parliamentarians did not appear to be bothered about Osama living in Abbottabad for the past five years and in other parts of the country since 9/11.
Osama bin Laden was a hero in Pakistan even prior to his death and remains one now as well.
Previous US ambassador Anne Patterson to Pakistan, wrote in a secret review in 2009 that ‘Pakistan's Army and ISI are covertly SPONSORING four militant groups - Haqqani‘s HQN, Mullah Omar‘s QST, Al Qaeda and LeT - and will not abandon them for any amount of US money‘, as diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks show.
Ambassador Patterson had NO reason to mislead her own State Department and U. S. government.
How can Pakistani State or its nuclear weapons be threatened by Islamic fundamentalists when its Army, Intelligence Agency and Democratic governments SPONSOR such Islamic fundamentalist outfits like Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda, Mullah Omar’s QST, Haqqani’s HQN and Hafiz Saeed’s LeT and will NOT abandon them for any amount of US money as reported by ambassador Patterson?
one wonders if you have an intelligent bone in your body at all.. You obviously have nothing to say regarding the topic instead of peddling your anti-Pakistan bigotry any way you can.. In any case, wherever you copy-paste your nonsense, you will find my response pasted in kind. Enjoy!
Spewing lies consistently doesn’t change the facts on the ground. There exists NO evidence that Pakistan facilitated OBL’s relocation from Sudan to Afghanistan. Claiming to do so without citing irrefutable evidence goes to show your utter anti-Pakistani bias that you constantly peddle in every single Pakistan related article here on Foreign Policy.
Bruce Riedel? Who really takes Bruce Riedel seriously apart from the bureaucrats who have been working on the so-called Af-Pak American policy for years now and have gotten nowhere with their ill-conceived notions of success in the region! Taliban didn’t come crashing to Earth from Mars; they were the same ‘jihadi Frankenstein monster’ that the Americans (CIA) & Saudis created and funded to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan.. Pakistan merely re-organized them to quell the Afghan civil war that had erupted post Soviet departure and American abandonment of the region. Obviously, Riedel is too ashamed to admit some cold hard facts.
NO one in Pakistan ever says that whatever methods of implementing its own foreign policy objectives Pakistan employs is because of lack of development or lack of education, etc. The methods that Pakistan employs are a direct result of American intransigence regarding Pakistani interests in Afghanistan. How does putting terrorists of Northern Alliance (Taliban competitors bankrolled, financed and armed by India) in to positions of power in the puppet Afghan gov’t of Karzai help Afghanistan prosper? The performance of Karzai's stooge govt is for all to see.. bribery, corruption, feudal lords stacking looted cash from national coffers in Dubai and Swiss accounts while ordinary Afghans suffer!
Your ignorance is starkly visible from your statement, "Should India create terrorist outfits to terrorize Pakistan and take it over because India feels sandwiched between China and Pakistan".. this is sheer ignorance in the face of the fact that India has consistently financed Northern Alliance to counter Taliban in Afghanistan. Let’s not forget that these Northern Alliance terrorists were regularly supplied with finances and arms/ammunition via Indian forces base/outpost in Tajikistan that also includes an air-field. India doesn’t even border Afghanistan, so why all this jostling for influence?
Surely, Pakistan will do what it can to root out India’s nefarious designs in Afghanistan wherever and however possible. It’s a legitimate security concern for Pakistan that borders Afghanistan and it should come as NO surprise. Come 2014, the Pashtun majority, who support the Taliban by and large will make their influence felt in Afghan politics one way or another – which has thus far been sidelined by the current Afghan govt which is staffed by a plethora of minority Uzbeks, Tajiks, Hazara, etc who peddle the interests of their masters in India and by extension their benefactors in the United States.
Surely your nonsensical narrative of events from cherry-picked information couldn’t more deviant from the actual ground realities. Yes it is wrong that some sections of the Pakistani society celebrated the killing of Salman Taseer and venerated his killer. So what? Big whooping deal! Which society doesn’t have right-wingers? A simple look across the border in India will reveal how much love fanatic Hindus have for the guy who assassinated Mahatma Gandhi and who decry Gandhi as a traitor and a Muslim-lover. Need I say anything about the Tea-Party in America? The delusional likes of Sarah Palin and/or Michelle Backman? Bottom line is, the killer has been sentenced to death and the court’s decision is resolute in punishing a criminal of his magnitude. Simple as that.
Ofcourse Pakistani parliamentarians passed a resolution condemning U.S unilateral action against OBL on Pakistani soil.. Hardly any parliamentarian (except those from the religious far-right) had any issue with OBL being killed. Ofcourse OBL is hero to some just like Anders Behring Breivik , the Norwegian killer is a hero to many right-wing Europeans who rejoiced in the killing of innocent ‘Muslim-lovers’ and ‘left-wing softies’.. What does this point raised by you prove? Absolutely NOTHING. What almost everyone in Pakistan, not just the parliamentarians, had a problem with was U.S flagrant violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty. That is a legitimate and understandable grievance. Your rants to the contrary are nothing but an exercise in rhetorical polemic with very little substance.
In your condemnation of Pakistan’s elected parliamentarians and labeling them as somehow pro-OBL, you forget to mention that most of the Pakistani population today regards the regime of Asif Zardari as nothing but a puppet of the United States in its continued support for American operations in Afghanistan via intelligence sharing, military cooperation, etc. Hence the dichotomy in your argument is fully exposed.
To date, no concrete evidence exists of ISI’s current support of Haqqani or anyone else.. Opinions, assumptions, conjecture by this official or that official, whether it be Anne Patterson or Adm. Mike Mullen; its all about political maneuvering to put more pressure on Pakistan by making an scapegoat in the failed saga of American adventurism in Afghanistan, which after a decade, still has no certain end. Here’s some refreshing information (excerpt) for you from TIME magazine’s recent report:
…’ But Thomas Ruttig, a co-founder of the Afghanistan Analysts Network (AAN) and expert on the Haqqani network, thinks ISAF may be crowing over very little…’ , Ruttig of AAN, says, "It is difficult to prove that the ISI is behind, or advises in, particular operations of the Haqqani network, or, for that matter, other Taliban subgroups or other terrorist organizations. Often, reports about the Haqqani network or other organizations' involvement in certain attacks remain unclear. This is still the case in the latest attacks." For what it's worth, both the Pakistani and Taliban spokesmen have denied that links exist between the ISI and the Haqqani network.’ Courtesy TIME
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2096545-1,00.html
You got one thing partially right – Pakistan will not abandon its interests for any amount of money. Only way to seriously engage Pakistan in a constructive manner is to listen to what it says. Wind-up the endless Indian consulates popping up everywhere in Afghanistan and limit Indian influence in Afghanistan to a legitimate minimum as would be required to conduct the ‘good’ work that Indians are doing in Afghanistan as per their claims. Negotiate with the Taliban (which the U.S is doing off and on but trying to outflank Pakistan in such negotiations – another misstep and height of foolishness) and other such concerns. Then only will Pakistan respond positively and favorably and do what it can by using any leverage, if there, it has over any sort of militants.
Your comments in every other Pakistan related thread are highly ignorant and have very little logic or understanding of the complex situation that involved Afghanistan-Pakistan region. I am extremely tempted to think that you are nothing but an alternate user I.D of another user here on FP who goes by the name ‘DRKUCHBHI’. May very well not be the case but surely, you both have nothing better to do than regurgitate the same anti-Pakistan bile again n again.
Apparently, Pakistan's Supreme Court agrees with you almost point by point and has so ruled.
http://www.dawn.com/2011/10/07/sc-blames-federal-sindh-govts-for-karachi-bloodshed.html
Also heartening, from Balochistan
http://www.dawn.com/2011/10/10/150-crime-cells-busted-in-balochistan-says-secretary.html
Could it be that the military, the politicians and the courts in Pakistan could ally themselves with common folk against prevailing corruption? Is Pakistan finally ready to grow up?
People of goodwill can only hope.
Missing in this scholarly narrative are issues of southern urban ecology which have complicated the tribal nature of mass migration to most exhausting cities whether you look at mombai capetown cairo bangladesh beijing or even karachi
The west fails to understand developing nations cannot accommodate vast migration to the city slums. Levels of production & urban planning have not kept up with the demands of exploding cities. It appears karachi has been tipped over by ARMED & desperate migrants instead of just economically strained refugees. Karachi & Cairo may benefit from greater resources allocated to sustainable energy & potable water for its residents than water fountains in leafy squares with broad boulevards. The epic floods are just the most recent strain, but the west continues to deny any responsibility for anthropomorphic climate change.
Mr Martel is citing CIA Reidel as if intel agents analyze urban decadence through a humanitarian filter. May see the forest before picking at the trees. The west has cultivated social breakdown through its non-stop support of military dictators & unfettered globalization via tethered IMF loans.
User Marty Martel is an anti-Pakistan bigot who regurgitates the same 2-3 comments of anti-Pakistan drivel that he has managed to put together using all the pseudo-intellectual parts in his body.. and all he can do is copy-paste them in all Pakistan related articles here at Foreign Policy..
You are absolutely wasting your time actually engaging this nut into any meaningful discussion..
Problems of Karachi are symptomatic and primarily flow from the Complete Leadership Failures seen in Pakistan.
Who is to be blamed if democratic ethos were never promoted and nurtured in the country at large?
Who is responsible for promotion and use of violence to settle all real and imaginary disputes with in country and as well as with neighbors?
Why patty political goons are allowed to settle scores by bullets, rather than by ballots?
Karachi only represents persistent failures and absence of leadership in Pakistan.
Karachi also provides safe homes and cover to dozens of foreign origin Killers, drug lords, hate preachers, smugglers, bandits, terrorists hidden by lofty nationalistic institution of Pakistan, the ISI.
in your apparent anti-Pakistani diatribe, you forget that the author is trying to gauge the causes of Karachi's problems so as to arrive at some sort of solution for them and in the process, he pays homage to the determined will of the people of Karachi to hope and work towards that solution - which is also a representation of Pakistan's society at large.. a young country at 64yrs of age where different elements of a society are in friction at this point in time.. it is this very frictional process during which, key actors in this struggle to define Pakistani society become mature over time and work towards a solution that benefits all instead of perpetual suffering.
In your anti-Pakistani regurgitated bile and your attempt to label Karachi's problems as something extra-ordinary for a under developed country, you also forget that just across the border in the so-called 'success-story' of India, lies the city of Mumbai, Karachi's older-sister city.. Mumbai is plagued by the same problems at a much more troubled rate.. Safe haven for criminals and terrorists, nationalistic fascist Hindu groups extremely active, a thriving criminal economy of extortion, robbery, etc. How about Mexico City? How about Dhaka? How about Bangkok? Ranting like an idiot won't help your case unless you present your argument in the context of the article by the author.
Not to forget the key factor that the author brings up in his article, is the massive migration from other parts of Pakistan to Karachi for a chance to strike gold which has only made things worse.. Same case applies to across the border in India where mega-cities are under severe strain from mass migration from the countryside to the urban areas; where resources such as land and other services become over-stretched causing all sorts of problems. Here's an eye-opener:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-15056418
So spare us your nonsense 'VISIONTUNNEL' because I am seriously starting to think that you are deeply inflicted by a chronic case of 'tunnel-vision'..
Be Honest and Brave to Accept the Hard and Dirty Realities
TRUTHSEEKER,
Please do not mind, but I am amused by your pompous ID, foretelling your professed interest in the lofty truth, while betraying profound ignorance about the defining realities of the world with in and elsewhere.
Your attempts at Blatant Obfuscations by equating troubles of Karachi with Mumbai and Mexico wont help in wider understanding of the issues.
Perhaps it is clear from your angry reaction that solution is not at all your objective and neither a goal.
People are same every where along with few saints and demons lurking in every societies. Most of the people tend to live their lives with in their immediate environment..
If you think Mumbai and India are as bad examples to justify deep rot with in Karachi and Pakistan at large, you are entitle to your illusions and beliefs.
Migration to large metropolis in this part of region due to unbalanced growth, concentration of opportunities and chances of better life act as magnet for all kind of people, from unskilled hands to highly educated professionals.
I am not here to indulge in age old Indian-Pakistani mud fest, but that wont hold me back from making frank observations along with amazement with the acute strain of self defeating jingoism displayed by educated Pakistanis.
The author in his wisdom has only chose to explain the events and groups of actors with out accepting and linking the problems with the larger self destructive maladies of wrong national goals and ideal,
It also a well known reality that Pakistan has been afflicted with shortage of real leaders with wider vision and modern ethos.
Mindless promotion of hate and religious obscurantism of Megalomaniac ZA Bhutto, acute radicalization espoused by Gen Zia and their defining roles in present day mayhem is to seen with reference to what and why they acted as they did.
There has been no one to change the courses and stop the mad foreign policy goals nurtured and administered by insular Army and ISI.
Instead of feeling angry, please get down to do some thing real about the Troubles of Karachi and Pakistan, rather that justifying the everyday mayhem by quoting irrelevant and unsubstantiated matter..
regurgitated bile from a Pakistan-basher that you are.. Your ignorant rant to my comment goes to show that you haven't even bothered to read my comment properly. There is nothing in my comment to suggest problems affecting Karachi should be allowed to slide-by just because they are similar to problems happening in other third world countries.
What my response did suggest, was that you get off your haughty pedestal of holier-than-thou and quit lying through your teeth. Your claims of not wanting to 'engage in Indo-Pak mud fest' appear ludicrous given your comments on pretty much every single Pakistan related article here at FP. Perhaps its time you start following through on your claims.
Same nonsensical attempts of yours of trying to somehow link ISI to the very different problems of Karachi are idiotic at best..
Keep at it, the only person 'angry' here is you.. The sheer number of responses from you to a single of comment of mine goes to show how much you had to get off your chest to feel better.. Hope you ended up having a good night's sleep.
The assumptions about the unique determination of Karachi
Dear TRUTHSEEKER,
Do you really believe that people of Karachi are endowed with some unique determination and will, which is totally absent elsewhere in the wretched world?
Same concepts and ideals are regularly dumped about Pakistan and its troubled people.
But in fact, the great virtues are being assigned to what are the set of self inflicted compulsions and infirmities.
The worst aspect of the whole regressive affair is that there has been, so far no real attempts to address the root causes to solve the problems.
I am neither lampooning nor trivializing the troubles of Karachi/Pakistan but only expressing my perennial amazement about examples of persistent leadership failures.
By the way, who is the real leader in Pakistan/Karachi today?
Your learned answer to this question would assign elements of utility or futility of this discussions.
you cannot desist from twisting other folk's comments through your minimal understanding of what was actually said in the first place..
Nothing in my comment suggests that people of Karachi have some extraordinary determination and will to strive for a better living than other parts of the 'wretched world'.. It is already evident from my initial comment that Karachi's problems are very much similar to other burgeoning mega-cities in the less-developed countries around the globe which arise from mass-migration, lack of adequate resources and where there are resources, lack of proper leadership and abundance of mismanagement.. and that its people are trying has hard as folks elsewhere to better their lives.
What was additionally implied? That yes, the so-called War on Terror in Afghanistan has created a unique situation which is adding more strain to Karachi's existing problems..
Your nonsensical and farcical comments regarding Pakistan on the whole on every single Pakistan related article here at FP are enough to divulge what you're really going on and on about here..
I'm just amazed by your circus act of comments, where you're desperately trying to pick something out of my comments to argue about just for the sake of it..
The Pakistani parliament’s joint session convened on 5/13/2011 after Osama’s killing and ended after adopting a unanimous resolution condemning the American raid on the Abbottabad compound in which al Qaeda chief was killed. Pakistani parliamentarians did not appear to be bothered about parenting guide Osama living in Abbottabad for the past five years and in other parts of the country since 9/11.
May/June 2013
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