Understanding Pakistan through the story of Karachi
There&#x27;s a history of regionalism with regards to the cities and provinces in Pakistan that governs a lot of the domestic politics and intellectual milieu.<p>Political parties tend to be a lot more regionally concentrated as opposed to American Political Parties which are spread out across the country. One of the often repeated lines is how any certain political party (take your pick) such as the one dominating the Sindh province where Karachi is, will give a higher quota of governmental jobs and postings to people from Karachi, specifically opposed to the Punjab region where Lahore is, which is the most populous region.<p>You have to understand that many of the cynical tactics common in the politics over there like large rallies are intrinsically populist, despite the subject matter of the rally (foreign or domestic), because they rely on the working class and poor masses at large, regardless of party. The politics are quite acrimonious and generally there&#x27;s quite a bit more ad hominem than even the US. It&#x27;s just par for the course, but if you lift the veil, you see many members of the same families (by which I mean really, really large extended families) in opposite political parties cavorting together on the regular in things like business and socializing.<p>It&#x27;s also worth mentioning that people from Karachi tend to have a particular complex about Karachi with regards to the country as a whole. I say this as someone who is born in Lahore, so naturally I&#x27;m biased towards that city. It goes beyond the typical sports fandom type of &quot;rivalry&quot; that exists, IE people who prefer LA to Chicago or to NYC etc. Rivalry is inappropriate here because at one time, Karachi was considered as the National Capital, and those ideas&#x2F;complexes shape a lot of the city today, because it&#x27;s a case of what could&#x27;ve been, as opposed to what it is.<p>Karachi is faced with urban decay and blight beyond what is typically found in cities as a byproduct of income inequality. There&#x27;s a lot of old money in Karachi, but at the same time, there are many perceptions that are quite deserved like being robbed continuously and constant drug use etc. I have first hand experience with that unfortunately. To further highlight this, the nation&#x27;s founder&#x27;s tomb is in Karachi. That&#x27;s incredibly important there.<p>I would also say that there is a big divide between Western perception of how politics&#x2F;democracy works and the reality over there. I do tend to agree with the platonic ideal that a powerful civilian establishment is important. There&#x27;s no denying that. However, at large, the civilian bureaucrats are all seen as corrupt by and large which is pretty deserved. Kleptocrats ruined the country&#x27;s trajectory. Civilian police isn&#x27;t particularly well liked by anybody. The military as an institution, is the most respected institution domestically, even though abroad it&#x27;s seen as something like a junta, and it&#x27;s bodies like it&#x27;s intelligence division seen as operating without oversight. That&#x27;s quite unfair and quite wrong. Civilian infrastructure there is incapable of running many of the industries that the military can through discipline, hierarchy, and a chain of command.<p>There&#x27;s also a pretty big intellectual divide that&#x27;s existed for many reasons too long to list. Many of the disaffected particularly wealthy youth are called the Burger Class, a portmanteau word combining the Burghers of old with Western Burgers, because they have an intellectual cynicism through privilege. Many of my extended family falls into worldview because they&#x27;ve never faced any hardships.<p>The state neglect line at the end of the article is something that I would categorize as coming from the framing of Karachi&#x27;s aforementioned complex. I&#x27;d also frame the paramilitary crackdown as a byproduct of the income inequality, blight, and the fact that civilian infrastructure is so crippled by kleptocrats that they can&#x27;t do their job.<p>Not a good situation all around but there&#x27;s some bright lights. I&#x27;d encourage everyone to look up the Edhi Foundation and see how modern politics suggest there&#x27;s a light at the end of the tunnel.