The typical spirit and character of this city was once defined by the fact it was cosmopolitan. It belonged to all who lived here whether they had come here from other parts of the country in search of work, or were permanent settlers. Everyone mattered in their own different ways. The working class generated the wealth of industrialists, the middle-class was educated and sophisticated, the entrepreneurial or business class created money-spinning enterprises.
It was a city of hope, opportunity and self confidence. A true urban area is defined by the interaction and interdependence of all classes of its society. Not any longer. The city is fast evolving into an elitist social order based on wealth targets made through illegal enterprises by what we call the 'mafia' which gets its way by using force, coersion, cronyism, the help of thugs and the manipulation of justice, law and human rights.
Posh, unaffordable highrise buildings, gated communities providing every thing for the good life from the best quality housing to clubs, cinemas, swimming pools, restaurants, security service, water, power and gas. The rest of the city suffers because the services and amenities are diverted to those who have the money to pay for it (and in hefty sums). The rich do not know how the rest of the city lives, or rather, survives. Their world is restricted to posh areas of the city. They have never seen, nor desire to know, how the poor live. They conveniently ignore the fact that 50 percent of the city consists of slums.
Housing is the first item on the elitist agenda. There is a lot said about black money invested in buildings and posh apartments. The purchaser has to pay a tax percentage. If a house was purchased for, say eleven crore, it is declared to have been purchased for, say four crore and the tax is paid on four crore. This is a strange phenomenon born out of the desire for living in elitist housing. People who work abroad have eared their money legally, but they resort to the same tax cutting ploy thus turning the actual white money into black; they cannot now claim the rest of the eleven crore, a hefty seven crore, is white. Why do they resort to this bad habit?
Nothing in this city is for the working class or the middle-class. Housing of their own is a pipe dream, while they have to wage a battle to get adequate water, power and gas. So many housing societies are being built in Karachi. Show me one which caters to the middle-class. Housing for the working class exists in promises on a piece of paper.
There is massive presence of law enforcement agencies in Karachi, but they do not provide adequate security to ordinary citizens. The attitude of the government does not favour them either. A colleague who hails from Multan said one day, that when he complained about water, power and gas shortagesand his inability to purchase even a small house, a minister he was talking to said, 'why don't you go back to Multan?' Excuse me. The man is a resident of Karachi for fifty years; his CNIC says so.
Karachi is his home and the home of his children. He does not even have a family in Multan.
Karachi may appear to be a very modern city, especially its posh highrise buildings, glittering shopping malls, modern leisure activities, state-of-the-art hospitals etc, etc and the hundreds of latest model automobiles plying the roads. But pundits of urban development say Karachi is not a smart city. Gated communities, urban sprawl and private means of transport are not planned development. There is governance vacuum, mostly filled by unregulated private sector (read 'mafia'). In Karachi, control over land and services provision is said to be shared between 13 controlling and management authorities - and all of them are bent on filling their own pockets. There is also a large undocumented economy. This city is going down the drain. All one can say; it will go down with all it, fancy feather flying.
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