Soon after the renaming of the frontier province as Khyber Pukhtunkhwa there was a riotous demand from its Hazara district for being made into a separate province. Even as tempers in Hazara cooled down after several days of violence, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) co-ordination committee asked for a roundtable conference of all political parties for the creation of several more provinces, especially Karachi province.
This is a long-standing desire of Karachiites of all stripes. But when the demand for Karachi province was first voiced some twenty or twenty five years ago it was thought to be exclusively the demand of the fledgling MQM and the Mohajir population in general, whether they were MQM supporters or not.
The loss of the country's eastern wing, which separated and became Bangladesh was still fresh in memory. In this context the demand for Karachi province was seen as an attempt of disgruntled Mohajirs to secede and become another country called Jinnahpur.
The name Jinnahpur was not coined by the MQM or any Mohajir political thinker. It was coined by an army major who also produced false documents to prove that the underlying purpose of the demand for a separate province of Karachi was secession.
Whatever may have been the provenance of the Jinnahpur scandal, its purpose turned out to be an excuse for witch-hunt of leading members of the MQM. Altaf Hussain was dubbed a traitor and anti-Pakistan. Demands were made for his trial for sedition and certificates of his being unpatriotic were issued.
The paranoia of those days, that is, the Bangladesh syndrome, ran high not only in the government of the day but in the armed forces and political circles. There was general feeling among these power brokers that carving out more provinces from the remaining four provinces of Pakistan would cause destabilisation.
Karachi was not the only place where people demanded a separate province. As vociferous were the people in southern Punjab and northern Sindh in their demand for a Seraiki province. None of the political parties, PML, PPP, ANP, and the religious parties, which had put on a political cloak: the Jamaat-i-Islami and JUI were in favour of more provinces. The PPP may claim it was sympathetic, pointing out Bhutto had once said that if France, which is geographically a tiny country compared to Pakistan, could have dozens of provinces why could not Pakistan? But the truth is that he was not sincere. When it came to separating Karachi from Sindh, Bhutto sang a different tune.
Is the present political atmosphere encouraging to once again voice the demand for new provinces? The MQM thinks so. In a statement released on April 15 the co-ordination committee said: "Time has proved that the stand taken by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement leader Altaf Hussain about provincial autonomy, abolition of concurrent list from the constitution, and establishment of new provinces was correct." It added that the interest of smaller groups within the existing four provinces were ignored. The establishment of new provinces would remove their sense of injustice. The most important issue today is whether or not Karachi, a cosmopolitan city, be made into a province. Sindh minister for local government, Agha Siraj Durrani thinks not. "A new province will emerge only over our dead bodies," he said last Monday (April 19) when journalists asked him to comment on the idea of creating another province from a part of Sindh. As Durrani is known for airing personal opinion, it is hard to judge if his statement is his own or if he is an official spokesman for the PPP or for the Sindh coalition government.
The demand for Karachi province cannot be written off so arrogantly. Durrani sounded like master Tara Singh who had unsheathed his sword on the steps of Lahore Assembly building and roared that Punjab would never be divided (1946). Partition not only cut Punjab in two, but the Indian half has been further sectioned into three provinces. Similar divisions of Pakistan's four provinces is overdue.
Those against the creation of Karachi province are merely judging the demand as political or, worse, ethnic, because it was first voiced by a party whose members were exclusively Mohajir, a term, which has become generic to describe the partition refugees who hail from many ethnic backgrounds, as culturally different as the UP is from Madras. Karachi is not a Mohajir city any longer, and nor are members of the MQM. The city's population has more Pathans and Punjabis than Mohajirs, as well as other ethnic groups such as Parsis, Hindu merchants and Christians. They are naturalised Karachiites since the majority have lived here for over 30 to 50 years. Karachi is their home.
Karachi bears little resemblance to Sindh of which it became a part only when Ayub Khan shifted the capital to Islamabad. It also is incorrect to think Karachi is a Mohajir city. Politicians tend to ignore the unique character of Karachi culture. It is not ethnic. Its culture is derived from trade and commerce. The city was founded by merchants. Trde and commerce, and after Independence, industry defined Karachi and continues to define it. That is the reason there was no upheaval or disruption when the capital was shifted to Islamabad. The choice of Karachi as capital at the time of Partition was only a convince. The legitimate capital would have been Lahore, but it was too close to the border. Karachi's inclusion in Sindh did nothing for the progress of the city. In fact, the feudalistic culture of Sindh acted as a hurdle to trade commerce and industry. The business class resented it. Karachi is cosmopolitan because of its business culture. From the ordinary workers to the boss of any enterprise the population is mixed. The stakeholders here are not all Mohajirs.
Hence the demand for Karachi province is not the demand of Mohajirs along; it is the demand of the cosmopolitan populous. It is only if one sees the culture of Karachi as the product of her trade, commerce and industry, can one understand why Karachi province is viable. If one sees the demand as merely ethnic or even political, Karachi will never gain provincial status.
In all the arguments bandied about for and against the creation of Karachi province little attention is paid to the fact that it is the people of the city who demand it, and to ignore the masses always spells disaster.