Written by Ch. Muhammad Natiq Ubaid
The writer is a Defense and Strategic Affairs Analyst and Chief Editor of Editorial & Commentary at TN Media News.
There was a village where a man used to live in a small straw house. He had 5 sons, he spent day and night making them stronger and healthier so that when they grow up they may help him and the whole village to prosper. When 5 sons grew up they came out to be obedient, skilled and hardworking men. They helped their father and prosperity came to their home their small straw house became big and most beautiful home in the village. They not only helped their father but also helped the whole village and generated resources from which the whole village benefited, within a few years the whole village on their shoulder started prospering. Similarly, Karachi is the 5 sons of this country, it’s not only the biggest city of this country but also the most populous city in Pakistan. The skilled labour ratio at its height contributes to the country’s economy is highest.
Karachi, city and capital of Sindh province, southern Pakistan. It is the country’s largest city and principal seaport and is a major commercial and industrial centre. Karachi is the financial and commercial capital of Pakistan. In line with its status as a major port and the country’s largest metropolis, it accounts for Revenue collected from Karachi including revenue from some other areas since the Large Tax Unit (LTU) Karachi and Regional Tax Offices (RTOs) Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur & Quetta cover the entire province of Sindh and Balochistan. Karachi’s indigenous contribution to national revenue is around 25%.
Karachi’s contribution to Pakistan’s manufacturing sector amounts to approximately 30 percent. A substantial part of Sindh’s gross domestic product (GDP) is attributed to Karachi (the GDP of Sindh as a percentage of Pakistan’s total GDP has traditionally hovered around 28%-30%; \Most major foreign multinational corporations operating in Pakistan have their headquarters in Karachi. The Karachi Stock Exchange is the largest stock exchange in Pakistan and is considered by many economists to be one of the prime reasons for Pakistan’s 8% GDP growth across 2005.
Karachi has seen an expansion of information and communications technology and electronic media and has become the software outsourcing hub of Pakistan. Call centres for foreign companies have been targeted as a significant area of growth, with the government making efforts to reduce taxes by as much as 10% in order to gain foreign investments in the IT sector. Many of Pakistan’s independent television and radio stations are based in Karachi, including world-popular Business Plus, AAJ News, Geo TV, KTN, Sindh TV, CNBC Pakistan, TV ONE, ARY Digital, Indus Television Network, Samaa TV and Dawn News, as well as several local stations.
Karachi has several large industrial zones such as Karachi Export Processing Zone, SITE, Korangi, Northern Bypass Industrial Zone, Bin Qasim and North Karachi, located on the fringes of the main city. Its primary areas of the industry are textiles, pharmaceuticals, steel, and automobiles. In addition, Karachi has a vibrant cottage industry and there is a rapidly flourishing Free Zone with an annual growth rate. The Karachi Expo Centre hosts many regional and international exhibitions. There are many development projects proposed, approved and under construction in Karachi. So, this information tells us that Karachi is basically the crown jewel of Pakistan. Order to keep it moving this requires peace and stability.
This city is facing lots of internal issues and one of the most important issues is organized crime and violence. The consequences of organized crime and violence in Karachi city affect Pakistan directly. Research shows that residents of highly violent parts of a city have the same degree of post-traumatic stress disorder as soldiers returning from war zones. Maintaining peace in the city with the largest population and land has become the largest challenge. The political power of organized crime has also become more apparent in recent years. In the contexts of dysfunctional institutions and weak state-society relations, crime groups infiltrate and influence local and national political systems to serve their needs and, in the process, undermine institution-building, urban safety and development efforts supported by national governments, municipal authorities and international donors.
Furthermore, conflict, chronic violence and insecurity in Karachi city look set to grow. The confluence of the well-known stress factors of population growth, rapid urbanization, climate change and the diffusion of power will find violent expression in the population of this city and overpower existing conflict-management institutions and systems, both formal and informal.
Until now, many city policies have emphasized repressive approaches, whereby the authorities crush organized crime and violence through law and order or a ‘war on drugs’. Researchers have come up with a solution where urban safety specialists have focused on modifying the built environment to make cities safer. But, given the explosion of violence and insecurity in this city, structural modifications to the urban environment must surely be only one part of the solution. Securitized and militarized approaches, meanwhile, have proven largely ineffective in reducing violence and crime. Approaches that are integrated across sectors and work at different levels, however, have seen positive results.
This city with all its potential is facing many challenges that are hampering its full potential. Law & order situation which was once controlled by Pakistan Rangers (Sindh) and Sindh Police joint tireless operations cleared the city from criminals and the city once again became “The City of Lights”. All hopes, business and prosperity returned back to the city. Karachi after the cleanup operation in 2015 made a phenomenal business of billions just on the eve of 14 August (Independence Day) celebration. Karachi has potential with all its resources from manpower to seaport and its industrial sector but peace is important to utilize its full potential.
Peace in Karachi leads towards the prosperity of Pakistan, but this peace is disturbed from time to time to disturb the prosperity of Pakistan. This city has seen many worse situations, disrupting its peace from political parties to gangs. A city with such a magnitude and potential has been an arena of Low-intensity conflicts where gangs for their own motives and benefits disrupted its peace and hampered its business to lout it from its core. Karachi played the role of Dubai for this region where nonresidents came here to earn money but disowned the city the most dangerous lot are Afghan nationals who had no sympathy for this city nor with the country. Afghan nationals undetected living within this city owning large to small businesses not only infiltrating illegal weaponry but also drugs.
Since they are not legal citizens of Pakistan and came here emigrants from a war-torn country had no sympathy whatsoever with this city. They became elements of criminal pedigree and camouflaged within this society with no data and record and did what a hungry wolf does to a lone rabbit. A city which was famous amongst its fellow citizens as the most decent and educated people became edict of drugs and youngsters were taken away from education by Political parties here Afghan nationals smuggled weapons into the educational institutions and made them warzones. A small group with no ethos and only one motif of earning money did whatever they could do and polluted this city and hampered its peace. This group was an easy target for other hostile elements who wanted to destabilize Pakistan. Afghan nationals with no record in the national database and quality of doing anything became a tool for crimes and even terrorism.
They control the entry and exit of this city with its transportation and logistics. Their presence in this city is strategically designed and deployed so that whenever a High or low-intensity conflict(s) are triggered they can become instrumental in their full effects. Secondly, with this strategically located approach, they are instrumental to launch and execute all kinds of small and large crimes in this city from mugging to carjacking, from burglary to ransom and many other means of crimes. Since with no data and records in the national database they are ghosts and excellent resources to disrupt peace and create agitation in the city. If Pakistan wants it to grow and utilize its crown jewel at its full potential, then authorities have to provide its citizens with peace and harmony and for that Afghanis have to be sent back to Afghanistan or else locals will be harassed by this gipsy group.
