Every one nowadays discuss about Karachi. They ask question will Karachi see peace again. Why political parties are fighting? Why Pathan and Muhajirs fight each other like Palestinians and Israelis do? Many people who are not from Karachi are very interested to know about Kati Pahari. May be some day Kati Pahari will be most search item on yahoo.
Some people may think root cause is fighting for resources when ANP emerged as strong party in Karachi few years back..Some may say third hand is involved in that. So the question is “are these perceptions true”
Well these perceptions are not true. So here is the fact folks.Many people may not like it especially those who are heavily into 80,s and 90,s propaganda of PTV and agencies. The root cause of Karachi problems lies in the insecurities that Muhajirs have due to many valid reasons. May be even ISI or IB local intelligence heads don’t realize such a thing that does not require Einstein and a supercomputer.
There are many reasons for MQM elusiveness and Muhajirs support for MQM. It goes back to Ayub Khan Era when mass murder of Muhajir occurred in Lalo Khait when government took revenge for local people support for Fatima Jinnah. Then in Bhutto era, again Urdu speaking were targeted all over the Sindh. Then nationalization occurred due to which many high quality colleges and universities went into government hands which were well managed by Urdu speaking.
Another thing which converted ash into boiling volcano of hatred was quota system which was very injustice towards local Urdu speaking population, which led to unfair dominance of Sindhis over much more educated Urdu speaking community. No province has such quota laws in Pakistan. Punjab does not have quota for south Punjab belt. KPK does not have quota for Hazara community. But yet, it was imposed in Sindh which literally “banned” Urdu speaking from entering into government jobs.
And there is another thing which many especially living outside Karachi will have hard time to understand, which created major hurdle between Pathan and Urdu speaking community and created sense of deep insecurity was TRANSPORT issue. The attitude of Pathans conductors and drivers was insulting towards Urdu speaking which any Urdu speaking found offensive and they had to face it daily. Fights were common and because pathans always had arms and weapons, the “food of thought” came into the mind of Muhajirs to buy weapons.
Incidents of Qasba Aligarh 1986, senseless hatred propaganda by Punjabi Pakhtoon Ittehad (PPI), police indifferent attitude towards killings of Muhajirs and burning of houses, discrimination in government and arm forces jobs led to the group of angry boys known as APMSO. These people were not really angels themselves may be because what they had to faced from government and different communities. Many Urdu speaking used to think that many Pathans are drivers guards and gardeners at their homes, they helped them and yet when it comes to right and wrong, different communities would be united against Urdu speaking as they were trying to run over Soviet Union.
When Beharis came from Bangladesh after giving everything for Pakistan for second time, they had to face Sindhi nationalists shouting “behari na khappay”. Some say resistance against discrimination started when Orangi Town Beharis took Pathans and other communities on and which ultimately led to formation of MQM. There is no surprise Imran Farooq, the co founder of MQM and many important members of MQM in the beginning were Beharis
So I repeat this fact once again…THE ROOT CAUSE FOR KARACHI PROBLEMS LIES IN THE INSECURITIES that Muhajirs have.
This detail was needed to clarify people how actually things work. Especially in Punjab people who have took the self proclaimed solo responsibility for Pakistan safety, which itself is the biggest tragedy of Pakistan and led to the creation of Bangladesh
So our question is “did our army and politicians and civil gurus learned lesson” from Bangladesh, NO. We are working on another assignment “free Balochistan”. And does it ring bell when slogans for Muhajir Sooba gains strength and now youth of Urdu speaking does not have any sense of proud and belonging to Sindhi province.
Slogans for Muhajir province can be seen on walls, can be hear on tea shops. And nowadays quota system has again pumped new air and power in these voices..Does it ring bell? I guess NOT. I personally don’t care whether there should be Muhajir province or not, but any approach to achieve it should not have weapons, arms and roads foot paths made of human dead bodies.
By Usman Arshad
Zaheer Ahmed Buledi
Good thoughts, all thoughts you have are correct. We have to overcome these insecurities by doing right decisions and give justice to everyone. I would like to correct one thing here that is you mentioned bus conductors of patan behave bad way with urdu speaking. Patan driver behaviour is same with every one. Urdu SPEAKING most effected because they use to travel on bus more than others. like in lyari the bus roots are around to none. so baloch people of that area not faced more. But we faced it when we go to light house. I am not saying you said wrong, all urdu speaking things same way as you said but i am saying what is truth.