Arif Habib recently bought a 1,300-acre plot in Karachi that was originally the site of a nationalised steel plant. Among the problems the founder of Arif Habib Corp, the Karachi-based conglomerate, faced was the fact that squatters occupied 250 acres of the property.
Arif Habib recently bought a 1,300-acre plot in Karachi that was originally the site of a nationalised steel plant. Among the problems the founder of Arif Habib Corp, the Karachi-based conglomerate, faced was the fact that squatters occupied 250 acres of the property.
These illegal residents had found their way there thanks to the so-called land mafia; gangs of professional land “grabbers”, many of whom came from the restive border region of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The main source of income for these gangs is the protection money they receive from such squatters.
Lots of gangs roam Karachi, which is one but hardly the only reason why it is not exactly a normal city. There is virtually no public transport; no metro and hardly any buses.
Few tower cranes or skyscrapers dot the skyline. Karachi used to be known as the City of Lights; now, after twilight descends, darkness follows. Once considered more cosmopolitan than Mumbai, today it looks decades behind that Indian metropolis.
There are few beggars, thanks to the Islamic tradition of giving known as zakat. There are also few cinemas and other places of entertainment, a legacy of the days when people did not dare venture out for fear of kidnapping and mugging. Sophisticated residents believe they are hostage to the worst traits of Islam, yet they also benefit from the kindest and most charitable elements.
The problems of Karachi are those of Pakistan writ large. It is ranked as one of the least liveable and most dangerous cities on earth. Not long ago the country was considered close to becoming a failed state. So if the government can indeed restore law and order in Karachi it will be a big step forward both for a nation of more than 200m people and for the region generally.
It is hard to believe that this is a city of as many as 25m people and could even be the largest city on the planet, exceeding Tokyo or Mexico City. The latest census was nearly 20 years ago, which is one reason no accurate statistics exist today. Since then the city has expanded; its population growth swelled equally by new births and by an influx of immigrants and refugees.
“We’ve lost the glory and shine of Karachi, unfortunately,” says Shahbaz Sharif, chief minister of Punjab, Pakistan’s largest province, and the brother of prime minister Nawaz Sharif. “The [central] government is committed to restore Karachi’s splendid law and order tradition.”
That law and order is maintained by the Rangers and the Army rather than the local police force, which is widely regarded as both corrupt and weak.
There is still a long way to go however. Karachi remains dysfunctional. “We are ground zero,” says Naheed Memon, chairwoman of the Sindh Board of Investment, Sindh being the province in which Karachi sits. “We can’t even collect our own garbage.”
Instead, it is Chinese companies that have received the contract to do so.
To be sure, progress has been made in eradicating the scourge of the gangs, although they have not entirely gone away. The mix of crime and politics is, sadly, a big feature of life in both Karachi and in the country. The gangs operate in collusion with a number of political parties, their ties reinforced by regional and clan loyalties.
Meanwhile, the state of the property market is symptomatic of the ills that plague Karachi. Much of it is part of the black economy, which bankers calculate is almost as large as the official one.
Developers say they have to pay “speed money” to government officials and the gangs if they are to get their legal rights, while the squatters demand market value to vacate the properties they illegally occupy.
After the terror attacks in the US in September 2001, most wealthy Pakistani families put their money outside the country.
In recent years, though, some of the money that flowed to Dubai and to tax havens such as Panama has come back through informal channels. Much of it has come into the property market.
Karachi remains a long way from what it once was. But at least it is no longer quite as dark as it was a few years ago.
