A book titled 'Lyari Ki Adhuri Kahani' by Ramzan Baloch was launched at the Karachi Press Club last Friday-week. I am half way through it and already it has provided answers to certain issues about this most misunderstood, underestimated and oldest part of the city. It is a simply-told autobiography, which encapsulates the once happy and peaceful life of all Bloch peoples; their love of sports; their heroic struggle to get out of the quagmire of poverty; their pride in Lyari; their astonishingly realistic political vision; their emotional hero worship, which dictated political loyalties; their secular outlook; the long list of past and present personalities from Lyari who figure in all walks of life in the country. The rest of Karachi does not know about this Lyari.
Even I who was once a frequent visitor, to watch football matches, have not, dare not go to a place now a hot bed of political violence and crime. However, the current picture of Lyari is not its true face. A book launch is usually a boring affair, but not 'Lyari Ki Adhuri Kahani'. The number of speakers held the large audience spellbound with accounts of interesting details about Lyari and how it was deliberately sidelined and allowed to be socially, politically and economically corrupted.
Even though Ramzan Baloch has written in a humorous, gently sarcastic style he too has recounted the betrayal of Lyariites, especially young Baloch, by power hungry politicians, the greed of land grabbers and opportunists. The book and the speeches at the launch revealed one important fact responsible for the present dreadfulness of Lyari. That Lyari's troubles and present character were (are) artificially induced by 'outsiders' who wanted to destroy Lyari's secular and democratic outlook.
Before 1962 there was no sign of Baloch nationalist sentiments. The formation of One Unit and Ayub Khan's Basic Democracy (BD) system sowed the needs of national consciousness. Before that date the people were hardly aware that the Baloch of Lyari were different from the Bangalis, Punjabis, Pukhtuns and others who lived there. As one speaker said, 'we saw ourselves simply as Lyariites.' The Baloch are the largest community in Lyari but they were simply Baloch, not tribals. In short, their identity was Lyari, not their original homes in Iran, Balochistan's coastal belt or tribal locales of Mari, Mengal etc of this province. Ramzan Baloch speaks passionately about the heroes of his youth who were all film stars, especially Dilip Kumar, and cinema was their chief interest.
Baloch political consciousness began to develop when the leading political party in Lyari, the National Awami Party (NAP) was pitted against the 'sarkari party' Ayub Khan's Convention Muslim League. The former had local Baloch leaders the latter 'outsiders'. Despite the massive support to NAP it was the sarkari party, which won the BD elections. And that was how resentment and nationalist sentiments began to emerge in Lyari and eventually spread to Balochistan.
Lyari in the past was the heartland of Karachi. Chakiwara maidan was where Motilal and Jawaharlal Nehru addressed Karachiites. Mahatma Gandhi addressed the public in Chakiwara three times. So since the beginning of its history Lyari has been a politically conscious region. The powers of independent Pakistan, since Ayub's days, have known that the key to suppressing the Baloch was to suppress Lyari.
It is not just that elections were rigged, police action disrupted peaceful meetings, even if they were just for solving social problems. The reason is that every meeting whether it was politically motivated or socially motivated was large and represented the rich and the poor the elite and the destitute, that is, everyone who was a Lyariite. That was a sign of Baloch solidarity officialdom did not approve of.
Everything was done to take away the dignity of Lyariites and reduce the quality of their simple life. Even the land was degraded. Ramzan Baloch mentions the state of Maripur Road and the vast open spaces along its side, which were popular football grounds and where other social activities like melas used to be held. Today it is occupied by Muchar Colony, the worst slum area of Karachi, truck stands and a cattle colony. Chakiwara was allotted once for a petrol pump, later official buildings were built cramping the space.
The author of 'Lyari Ki Adhuri Kahani' in his speech at the launch squarely blamed the press and electronic media for projecting a totally negative picture of present day Lyari. He said some channels overplayed the crime scene, that they gave fantastic names to criminals, sensationalised the scene, so that you would think the whole of Lyari was a bad place and every man a 'bad guy' (sic).