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Resuscitating a City Let No One Write Karachi Epitaph

The last fortnight has witnessed a focussing of national priorities with the very visible personal intervention of the PM in coming to grips with the ever-increasing problems of this vast metropolitan port city. Present in Karachi because of a family tragedy, Ms Benazir herself also became a victim of the massive blackout that hit the Province of Sindh and the city of Karachi. The miseries of rain-induced power shortage were further accentuated by a series of mysterious fires in power houses and grid stations. It would have taken an extremely insulated ruler, or a callous one perhaps, to remain impervious to the rapidly declining state of this leaderless city. Galvanized into action, the PM phased her approach to first providing immediate succour and relief, succeeding in instilling some urgency into the efforts of the Administration and the public sector utilities responsible for the bad state of affairs in the first place. Very visibly she did not show much confidence in the Provincial Government politicos or functionaries. However, in adopting a narrow political approach instead of a pragmatic and logical course as a democratically elected leader of bringing the city’s elected representatives into the solution mainstream in trying to keep the city going down the tube, she cast doubt on the credibility of the whole exercise.

This city is running on sheer momentum. Operation Clean Up had driven the urban political cadres underground, creating a leadership vacuum exactly when such a leadership was desperately needed at the grassroots level. The major factor contributing to the present socio-political crisis has been the indifferent, inefficient and almost non-existent civil administration of this metropolis. A city management that has no commitment to the people can never succeed. Without central direction and bereft of its elected representatives at the grass-roots level, the city’s infra-structure has gone to seed, the peace of earlier years has now been compounded by ethnic and sectarian clashes, further complicated by the lawless who have taken advantage of the uncertain environment with a spate of dacoities, kidnappings for ransom, etc. Well directed in the rural areas, in the urban areas Operation Clean Up separated into two parallel operations, one directed by uniformed personnel, the other by the shadowy men in mufti, badly compromising the integrity of the original mission whose prime targets were to be dacoits and kidnappers. Certainly there were militants in the MQM who had gone way past the pale of the law and needed to be brought to heel but insincerity in the intent and objectives of the men in mufti in contrast to the overall strategic plan as laid out to the then political government ensured that the Army found itself in sole confrontation with the MQM in deviation from its original objectives. The MQM hierarchy compounded the situation by abandoning their responsibility to the masses lock, stock and barrel and going underground. In the resulting leadership vacuum, a new breed of militants surfaced providing enemy agencies such as RAW with a gleeful opportunity to create mayhem. Writing in THE NATION, we had advised the immediate closure of the Indian Consulate General in Karachi (A DEN OF EVIL, June 28, 1994), one hopes that after the SAARC Foreign Ministers Conference in Dhaka (which has just ended) this will be done without further delay. RAW agents from this well of snakes are spreading poison in Karachi’s bloodstream. On Sunday, August 31, 1994 a Swiss national, Mr Fritz Jasser, was shot dead by two motorcyclists while driving a diplomatic vehicle, such is the state of lawlessness.

At the grassroots level, there is an immediate need to induct elected representatives to solve the worsening socio-economic and political situation. Karachi already has 5 districts, with certain adjustments in which the four Cantonment Boards must also became Districts, a total of 9 Districts must be formed. At a rough estimate, Karachi has a population of 9-10 million, that would make it about a million people per District. Each District should have 4 Sub-Divisions, each Sub-Division having 5 Police Stations which for administration unit should be called a Precinct of 50,000 people. This basic unit must be used as an immediate rule of thumb to plan the city administration up the tier. As a rough estimate the 180-200 Precincts in Karachi should each have magistrates, both professional and Honorary (preferably from the same or adjacent Precincts) attached to it permanently. Crimes of petty nature should be settled at this level so that public is available at the citizen’s doorstep, at the most definitely not beyond the Sub-Divisional Courts. Each should have 10 elected members on the slate pattern i.e. the first ten candidates getting the maximum votes should be elected as Precinct Councillors. Taxation, law and order, Justice, education, medical services, water and sewerage and garbage disposal can be decentralised down to the Precinct level. The first three who got the maximum votes would then be eligible for the Sub-Divisional elections i.e. 15 candidates could conceivably stand for the election, the first 5 who get the maximum votes should get elected to the Sub-Division Council which must form the higher tier coordinating the services aforementioned while adding Fire Services, electricity, hospitals, telecommunications, colleges, etc at this level. Similarly the first three who get the majority votes in the Sub-Divisional level, i.e 12 are then eligible for election on a slate basis for the District Management Group for 5 District Councillor’s posts with a proviso that the all 5 are eligible to stand in an election for District Mayor in an election where the candidate must get elected on a simple majority basis i.e. if he or she does not get more than 50% in the first election, then a run-off election must decide the winner, the Mayor thus being elected by a majority of the people through a grassroots approach. The District Government would have an elected Governing Board composed of elected representatives and an Executive Board composed of both the elected representatives and selected technocrats as their deputies, with a Deputy Commissioner of Police, General Managers for Electricity, Gas, Water, Sewerage, Garbage disposal, health services, telecommunications, education, etc. District courts should be able to dispense justice with absolute separation between the executive and judiciary. Only the Mayors would be eligible for direct election to the post of Lieutenant Governor of the Metropolitan area. The Lieutenant Governor of Karachi Metropolitan area has to be the executive head of the city with all the law enforcement agencies, education, health services, KESC, Karachi Gas, KWSB, KTR, etc under him. No one should be able to stand for the Provincial Assemblies unless he (or she) is a Precinct Councillor, for the National Assembly unless he or she is a Sub-Divisional Councillor and the Senate unless the person has been elected to the District Management Council. This will ensure commitment and participation by our normally absentee legislators who only appear in their constituency intermittently.

There will be a period between the time that the new institutions can start functioning and the elected representatives can take over, therefore a phased approach is necessary to come to terms with Karachi’s immediate problems. A man of known capabilities, organisational skills, integrity and credibility must be appointed to the post. Someone like Maj Gen Niazi, presently Chairman NHA, would be ideal for this post. Another possibility is Lt Gen Sabeeh Qamaruzzaman, presently Chairman Pakistan Steel, though he could be handicapped by his confrontation with the MQM’s PSM unit. The whole idea is that a man of tested mettle and capability takes over as Lieutenant Governor (LG) and then in consultation with the CJ Sindh HC, Chief Minister, Chief Secretary, IG Police, KMC, KDA, KESC, Sindh Education Dept, Sindh Health Ministry, Karachi Telecommunication Region, KWSB, etc and the Election Commission, demarcates the boundaries of the Districts, Sub-Division and Precincts. Frankly both committed citizens like Nazim Haji and Jameel Yousuf of CPLC should be in the city government at the Lieutenant Governor’s cabinet level. It would be a good idea to take over a part of the sprawling Sindh Governor’s Residence for the Lieutenant Governor’s office and Central Control Room, upgrading the CPLC Control Room for command and control through high-tech communications with the help of computers systemized down to the Precinct level. Retired Armed Forces officers of Lt Col or equivalent rank (or citizens of repute) can be appointed District Mayors, Sub-Divisional Administrators and Precinct Administrators. This infrastructure should carry out elections as per the given formula for Precinct and Sub-Divisional level at the end of one year, for District Government after another six months and for Metropolitan Government before the end of 2 years, handing over power on the given dates in commensurate fashion to the elected representatives.

While Karachi’s immediate requirement is a matter of life and death of this city, this pattern can be ultimately followed in all cities with population of 2 million or above. This is not a new suggestion, it has been given previously in THE NATION on Aug 22 and 29, 1989, “MAKING OF A CITY GOVERNMENT” but unfortunately nobody seems to be listening. The proposed composition of the new Board for KESC is an indication of the wrong approach. The gentlemen concerned are excellent corporate bureaucrats, Nisar Memon (IBM), Nasim Mirza (ICI) and Shaukat Tareen (Citibank) are all good men but they do not have the talent and potential of creating and developing their own enterprises like a host of Pakistani entrepreneurs available in the city of Karachi who have done so. Have they ever risked their own money in any business enterprise? Can they be expected to innovate fresh approaches to the problems of the city of Karachi? Without any personal aspersion on the aforementioned why should we depend upon executives of the modern version of the East India Company when talent and expertise is available in abundance in the domestic private sector? We should not create artificial governing Bodies that have no relevance with ground realities or mass perceptions. We need a grassroots approach immediately if we are to resuscitate this dying city. In layman’s language we need to bring in corporate businessmen of the street fighter kind willing to put their money where their mouth is, citizens like Nazim Haji and Jameel Yousuf who will not mind getting their shoes muddy. That is the only way to ensure that no one writes Karachi’s epitaph!

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