For people living in Karachi, it has been the same old tale for over three decades, and nothing has changed for a long time. The bloody stories of ethnic strife, political crimes and rivalries, sectarian tensions, and increasing population, the worsening economic, political, and social forces of the mad metropolitan city that keep on remerging again and again with more intensity.
Karachi city is a mix of different cultures and moral values. Scholars who keep a keen eye towards Pakistan believe that if Karachi’s various religious, ethnic, and sectarian groups can develop a framework to work together towards the city’s socioeconomic and political harmony, Karachi will become the “New York of Asia”.
Since the mid-1980s, Karachi’s ethnic diversity has remained a proud presence in the hands of military dictators and civilian politicians who continue to exploit this diversity and encourage ethnic and sectarian divisions in the country’s various political regimes for their personal selfish, short-sighted and exploitative goals. Unfortunately, the idea of working together towards the city’s progress is lost in the hands of some elite puppeteers.
The city was once the economic and entertainment centre of Pakistan. The matter of fact is that Karachi city is still the most significant financial hub and perhaps the most liberal and secular metropolitan city in Pakistan. But this city is also one of the most crime-ridden cities in the entire region.
The Urdu-speaking Muhajirs make up 43% of the city’s population, followed by Pashtuns (about 22-25%), Punjabis fall in 3rd position with about 14% population, Sindhis (about 7%), Baloch (about 6%), Sirikees (about 5%) and about (2-3%) Burmese and Bengalis are located in the city.
The city also has Afghani, Nepalese, and Sri Lankan communities. Karachi also has an active and integrated Chinese community consisting of Chinese who immigrated to Karachi in the late 1960s during Chairman Mao’s Cultural Revolution.
Urdu is the most common language spoken in the city, along with Pashto, Punjabi, Sindhi and English.
Karachi’s population is predominantly Sunni Muslim (approximately 65%), with a significant Shia population (about 30%). The city also has Hindus, a wealthy Zoroastrian community and a vibrant 5% Christian community. It is no wonder that the country’s founder and the first governor general, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, gave almost all of his most secular speeches in Karachi.
The city’s politics revolves around different political parties. The secular/Mohajir Mothida Qaumi Movement (MQM), Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Pakistan Threek-e-Insaaf (PTI), and the secular/nationalist Pashtun Awami National Party (ANP). Currently, PTI has the most MNA’s and MPA’s in the area, followed by PPP and MQM.
Other political parties also exist in the city, including the fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), the militant Sunni Threek (ST), the Jamiyat Ulma-e-Islam (JUI) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), but they are in a weak political position.
Many believe that Karachi never recovered from the brutal outburst of indigenous turmoil in 1986, which became the starting point of the city’s downfall.
But was Karachi city different in the past? Even looking at a glimpse of what the city looked like until the late 1970s and early 80s, one will agree with those who argue that Karachi once had the potential to become the New York of Asia.
The 1970s were the peak of tourism in Pakistan. The number of tourists who flooded the streets of Karachi, Lahore and Swat between 1970 and the early 80s was never seen again.
Most of the tourists who entered Pakistan during the peak of tourism in this country were young western bohemians (hippies). Pakistan was among the countries that followed the famous path called the “Hippie Trial”.
Early hippies first adopted the hippie trail in the late 60s. These young men and women rebelled against the “social restrictions” of Western society.
While the cost of living was cheaper for backpackers, the hippie trail created a thriving tourism industry in the region.
Karachi was the economic centre of the country as well as the centre of entertainment. From the 1950s to the late 1970s, Karachi had more than 500 cinemas. More than 30 nightclubs, numerous bars, a well-maintained race track and the best natural beaches in the area.
Cannabis was readily available, and people didn’t know what heroin or Kalashnikovs were. Also, alcohol and gambling were legal, and crime was relatively low.
Men, women and children could walk the streets of the city until late without anyone bothering them. There were crimes, but it was nothing compared to today’s situation.
In the late 1960s, tourism flourished as an industry in Karachi, and in 1972 the government established the country’s first dedicated tourism ministry and department with its headquarters in Karachi.
At that time, there was no concept of extremism or racism. From the Khyber Pass, the hippie travellers landed in Rawalpindi, took a train to Lahore, and from Lahore, took another train into India. Many travellers would also set foot in Karachi, especially for its beaches.
Hundreds of cheap hotels, restaurants, taxis and buses have sprung up in Karachi, Pakistan, along with other cities on the hippie trail, such as Athens, Tehran, Istanbul, Kabul, Goa, Delhi, and Kathmandu. Thousands of people got employed because of this tourism.
Most of these hotels are located in the Sadar area. The famous Zainab Bazaar, Old Clifton area, Hawke’s Bay, and Sandspit beach were always full of tourists, especially during winter.
Nightclubs were mostly crowded, and it was a booming business. The most popular ones were The Excelsior, Playboy, The Horse Shoe and Oasis. Alcohol was readily available in the bars of these clubs, and local and foreign whiskey, beer, vodka, and rum were sold in speciality liquor stores.
Apart from the restless nightclubs, beaches and shopping areas, other popular spots for free-spirited tourists were Kemari fishing port and the large huts behind Abdullah Shah Ghazi Temple in Clifton. The famous Kemari “Crabbing” scene was built for tourists in the 1970s.
Politics in Karachi before the 1980s was also very different. The politics of Karachi (until 1977) was fragmented but free of severe tensions. No single political party was influential in the city. Most of the city’s Mohajirs were one of the most socially liberal people in society, and they were politically conservative. This political conservatism came from an amateurish impression of being a migrant from India and not a “son of the land” like Sindhis, Punjabis, Balochis and Pashtuns.
MQM chief Altaf Hussain in his autobiography, My Journey, describes how Karachi’s Mohajirs supported right-wing religious parties such as Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and Jamyiat-e-Ulma-e-Pakistan (JUP), but the Mohajirs needed more investment in political parties that speak of Pakistan as a nation.
Interestingly, left-wing politics flourished in the city’s colleges and Universities so much that in 1967-1968, Karachi became the centre of the left-wing student movement against General Ayub Khan’s dictatorship.
Along with Jamaat-e-Islami and Jamyiat-e-Ulma-e-Pakistan, another Political party Pakistan People’s Party, managed to gain support in various areas, especially in the working-class and slum areas of the city.
In the 80s, support for the JI and JUP declined mainly with the rise of the MQM in the mid-80s, but the PPP somehow managed to retain the support it began gathering in areas such as Lyari and Malir in the 1970s.
Today people call Karachi the most liberal and secular city in Pakistan, but in the 70s, people used to sit at roadside cafes on Tariq Road and drink chilled beer just the same way as many eat bun-kababs these days. Even a member of a Jamiyat, AKA a jamatiya used to have a girlfriend. People didn’t use to judge each other based on faith, religion and ethnicity.
Obviously, everything was not perfect. The oil crisis of 1973-1975, caused by the Arab-Israeli War in 1973, significantly delayed the economic reform process of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto.
The Mohajirs of Karachi were fed up with Bhutto’s ‘quota system’ and his failed quasi-socialist nationalization process, along with the rise of Sindhi nationalism. Karachiites, along with JI and JUP, turned the city into the centre of protests against the Bhutto government.
However, with the beginning of a period to close the sociology and politics of Karachi, the era in the region was also coming to an end.
By 1979, the hippie’s trial was over. This route closed due to Afghanistan’s civil war and the Islamic revolution. Pakistan also started to change. A conservative military dictatorship overthrew the Bhutto government in 1977, setting the stage for a short-sighted, violent and crime-infested Pakistan.
Pakistan, whose largest city is becoming hunting grounds for misguided and greedy social, sectarian and ethnic engineers, has still not yet recovered.
Good effort