A debate is going on whose real purpose is political bargaining. The debate is about ending the 18th Amendment and making Karachi a separate administrative unit. People who enjoy arguing insist that this step would fix Karachi’s broken roads, solve the serious water crisis, stop flooding after small amounts of rain, and prevent roads from being dug up again and again. They believe projects like BRT underpasses would be completed on time.
They imagine a city where trees would be planted, where urban planning would stop turning residential areas into commercial zones, and where people would drive in proper lanes. A city where people would stop using bright flashing white headlights at night just for show.
A city where drivers of large dumpers and heavy vehicles would stop bullying smaller cars by using horns and forcing them to change lanes. Where rickshaw and motorcycle riders would stay in their lanes instead of taking advantage of their smaller vehicles. Where driving on the wrong side of the road would be treated as a crime. Where people would stop being crushed by dumpers and heavy traffic, and such deaths would no longer be common news. Where street lights on major roads would work, and this would be seen as a normal public right.
A city where some outsiders would stop treating Karachi like easy wealth and would act within the limits of civic behavior. Where all kinds of encroachments would be considered crimes. Where people would realize that life without constant air conditioning is possible if we start planting more trees. Where playgrounds would be built for sports without the fear of land grabbing or China cutting. Where roads would not have open sewage manholes in the middle, and if manholes existed, they would at least have covers. Only after all this, perhaps, would some corruption problems begin to improve.
In short, even if 1,800 constitutional amendments were introduced, Karachi has become an open ground where anyone does whatever they want. So the belief that putting Karachi under federal control would automatically solve everything is either wishful thinking or an ego battle.
We may not be completely numb, but we have certainly become somewhat insensitive. This disorder mainly benefits the PPP, because they know the other side only wants to pressure them. The truth is that no one seems fully capable of managing Karachi, let alone developing it.
That is why Zardari played a powerful card on Eid that left everyone politically checkmated:
“We must strengthen the hands of the establishment.”
PML N shows little interest in Karachi. MQM and Jamaat e Islami are trapped in their own political limitations, while the public remains trapped in apathy. Yet every side, for its own interests, wants to keep Karachi as a political card, something to be used whenever needed.
