Karachi Visit: A Harrowing Return to a Collapsing Political Order

By Mahjabeen Islam-Husain

A visit to Karachi is almost a surreal experience. After living there a few years, you do get adjusted to the contradictions of a Third World nation: squalor adjacent to palatial homes, and the strangely intermeshed lives of the very rich and the pathetically poor. Lately, though, one is treated to the paradox of an entire nation skating placidly on the very thin ice of “what you don’t see doesn’t hurt,” while just beneath is a veritable cauldron of explosive issues and electric tensions.

I developed a very healthy respect for the resilience of a nation that plods along while its leaders bleed it dry in new and not-so-novel ways. Lives go on despite whizzing bullets, big-ransom kidnappings and brazen burglaries by no less than college graduates.

I was finally able to work out that the unconcerned attitude of the people is a combination of hopeless resignation and misplaced fatalism. Since even naturalized Americans like me begin to take for granted the basics in life in the United States, adjusting to the “placid chaos” that now characterizes Karachi is in itself an experience.

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s rule, however, is beginning to take a toll even on the diehards of Sind. The thin veneer shows signs of cracking, and it is with bated breath that one even nurtures a thought about the future.

It’s almost like those sci-fi movies when a horrid monster comes bursting out of nowhere and is suddenly all over the place. Sharif’s methodic abuse of power debilitates reason. In the guise of a God-fearing low-profile type he surpasses his predecessors in the scope of his corruption.

Just the night prior to freezing all foreign exchange accounts in Pakistan, the Sharif clan is said to have transferred millions of dollars to foreign shores. The State Bank of Pakistan had guaranteed these accounts, and this summary move by the government caused indelible damage to the already poor investment climate in Pakistan.

Sharif promised personal austerity in his after-the-nuclear-detonation speech, and self-righteously advised his fellow citizens to desist from their tea habit so Pakistan can survive without the umbilical cord of the IMF. He has, however, no problems fattening the Sharif stash at government expense. He has an estate at Raiwind, funded by the unwitting taxpayer and the commissions from large corporations, complete with mosque, swimming pool, 600 telephone lines, a fish farm and mini-zoo.

Ethnic and sectarian violence threatens the very foundation of society.

And then there is Mayfairgate: The London Observer broke the story that the Sharifs own flats worth more than 3 million pounds in the upscale Mayfair area of London, bought by money laundered in Pakistan for the use of none other than the prime minister.

Also, if you’re going to go begging Uncle Sam, you might as well do it in style. Again, to keep up with Ms. Bhutto’s frequent trips to the United States while she was the boss, Sharif came to implore, with a 120-strong delegation of family, friends, acquaintances and “could I please come too?” types. A lukewarm underreported reception in Washington awaited Sharif, who was able at least to recover the money long owed to Pakistan by the U.S. since it refused to deliver the F-16s Pakistan had bought and paid for.

Notoriety at home was achieved, though, and the return was not lukewarm. Newsmagazines carried details of a delegation that got travel allowances, daily allowances, five-star accommodation, limousines and shopping at Bloomingdale’s and Neiman Marcus. All this at state expense and by the prime minister of a country in default.

Nepotism is also self-evident. Brother Shahbaz Sharif is chief minister of Punjab, not just the most populous province but also the most disproportionately powerful. Prior to the breakup of Pakistan into Pakistan and Bangladesh, East Pakistan was the most populous, but the reins of control and power were held by a Punjabi-dominated regime 1,000 miles away in West Pakistan.

Another Debacle in the Works

Civil war took care of that, and for those who learn from the lessons of history another debacle is in the works. Sind generates 71 percent of the country’s revenue, but the center keeps 61 percent of this. The center is dominated by Punjabis, while Karachi, the business capital of Pakistan, is essentially run by Mohajirs, the Muslims who migrated from India when the subcontinent was partitioned.

Parts of Karachi would put the most violent American inner cities to shame. Ethnic and sectarian violence threatens the very foundation of society. The Sharif regime is entirely ineffective in controlling this violence, lending credence to the theory that its existence gives the government reason to crack down on members of the Muhajir Qaumi Mahaz (MQM), the party of the “immigrants.”

Conspiracy theorists whisper that continuing violence enables Sharif to focus on violence-torn Karachi and institute governor’s rule there. The analogy between Bengal and Sind is like the writing on the wall, but only for those who care to see.

Sharif’s determined efforts to seize absolute power are more transparent than he would like to think. He first revoked the president’s ability to dethrone the prime minister, so no element of ‘dçjù vu’ haunts. In the past, both Sharif and Benazir Bhutto have been removed by presidential authority.

He then had the shariah bill passed through the lower house, so he may be “amirul momineen,” or the leader of the believers. It is clearly eyewash, with Sharif in the garb of religion craving absolute power. However, not having the requisite majority in the Senate is going to make its actual passage a little tough.

Slapping on Governor’s rule in violence-torn Sind is against Article 245 of the Constitution, which empowers the government to call out the armed forces only to assist it in maintaining civil power, not in displacing it. Governor’s rule essentially emasculates the judiciary and, instead of civilian courts trying the allegedly lawless, the military is empowered to arrest, try and punish.

The power saga continues. Army Chief of Staff Jehangir Karamat was noted as not toeing the Sharif line. His resignation was manipulated and two army generals were skipped over to place General Pervez Musharraf, a man of reputedly more “flexible principles,” as the army head.

News organizations have been raided by the police on the pretext of seeking unpaid taxes, though the real motive clearly was to silence the protests of the press that have now risen to a damning din.

An effort has been made to prevent members of the MQM from leaving the country, under an exit control policy, making a further mockery of the democratic process.

Recently the Sharif family apparently narrowly escaped an assassination attempt. They have a ritual on weekends of traveling from their estate in Lahore to their “town” in Raiwind. Some last-minute delay caused them to still be at their home instead of on a bridge en route when it was blown up.

A government helicopter transported them over the smoke and rubble to the comforts of the Raiwind mosque or pool, and nary a nerve was jangled. (Mrs. Sharif gave quite a calm interview.) This again led to speculation that the bridge explosion was a set-up by Sharif to go on a vendetta of more arrests.

Sharif has emasculated the judiciary, reduced the president to less-than-figurehead status, manipulated the armed forces, terrorized his opposition, destroyed the democratic process, antagonized all of Sind and swallowed an unknown but sizable amount of money.

The patient but unfortunate people of Pakistan seem to be reaching the end of their tether. It appears that Mr. Sharif’s political career may be in its final chapter.

And yet the misfortune of the Pakistani people is incalculable. When this chapter closes who is the replacement? Ms. Bhutto makes “greed and corruption” the understatements of the millenium—and it seems most Pakistanis are through with her two strikes.

The self-exiled leader of the MQM, Altaf Hussain, might find physical survival in Karachi a tad difficult. Imran Khan, the cricketer turned politician, though well-meaning and honest, does not appear to command any significant following. And then there are various littler guys, in pretty much the same category as Imran Khan.

It is personally insulting that such a talented nation could be ruled by successive leaders of this caliber. The country teeters on economic collapse, as does the very existence of its leader. Rampant unemployment, the devalued Rupee and runaway inflation make the climate a seedbed for major political change.

The “older order” appears to be close to yielding place to a new one. For the sake of a great people, I hope it will bring their sacrifices to an end.

Dr. Mahjabeen Islam-Husain is a Sunni Muslim Pakistan-born family practice physician living in the Midwest. She and her husband, a Shi’i Muslim who also is a physician, have three daughters and both are active in their local Islamic communities and in national Muslim-American affairs. She may be reached via e-mail at zakhsn@primenet.com