Grand designs for Karachi

Nawaz Sharif’s first visit to Karachi as prime minister was dominated by development, not the law-and-order situation in the city. During his short trip he reiterated his plans to build a six-lane Islamabad to Karachi motorway as well as an underground transport system. He did not mention his previously stated desire to develop a metro bus system along the lines of the one in Lahore, likely out of funding concerns. The prime minister’s desire to improve Karachi’s infrastructure is commendable but there are a few problems with his proposal. Most importantly, inner-city transport does not fall under the purview of the federal government and can only be undertaken by the provincial or city government. Then, there is the matter of just how cost-effective an underground transport system really would be. The city already has feasible plans for a circular railway which no one has acted on. Trying to convince the provincial government to implement that would be preferable to undertaking a costly new venture. For the Islamabad to Karachi motorway, we have the example of the Islamabad to Lahore motorway that Nawaz Sharif built in his previous stint as prime minister. Although a success now, the project was beset by alleged corruption both in the form of kickbacks and with influential politicians changing the proposed course of the motorway when it ran through their agricultural lands. A rerun of this experience needs to be avoided. The prime minister studiously dodged any attempts to tackle the very serious security problems in the city. As the leader of the PML-N, a party which has little to no local influence in Karachi, Nawaz Sharif would have been the perfect honest broker to talk to the MQM, the PPP and the ANP. Instead, he seems to have decided there is little glory and lots of pain in trying to solve this gargantuan task -- and so he ignored it altogether. The interior minister, in an earlier visit to the city, had demanded an improvement in the law-and-order situation and it was widely believed that Nawaz Sharif’s visit would follow up on that order. However, it did not turn out to be the case. But the prime minister cannot take a head-in-the-sand approach to one of the most pressing problems in the country. Karachi’s troubles, taking place as they do in the country’s most important economic hub, create aftershocks everywhere else. No amount of infrastructure improvement will have too great an effect as long as the political parties continue to be at war. To simply wish the problem away is an abdication of responsibility.