Local government dissolution in Karachi: chasm or catalyst?

Abstract

Karachi’s history has left a city riven by tribal, ethnic and sectarian divisions, which exhibits dimensions of fragility typical of ‘post-conflict’ cities. Pakistan has faced many challenges in establishing transparent government, and local government dissolution in 2009 led to a rapid increase in informal service provision, ghettoisation of low-income settlements, as sectarian violence left large parts of the city ungovernable. Through a case study of North Nazimabad, this paper explores the ensuing chasm and governance mechanisms that filled the gap, examining what happens when local government fails, and how groups and communities contest political, social and physical space.

Keywords:

• Karachi
• local government
• informal land controls
• informal settlements

Notes

1. For the first 35 years the country had no elected local government, and the widespread informal urban governance systems that emerged are a result of this gap.

2. KMC now includes 209 urban union committees and 38 rural union councils. According to the Sindh Local Government Act (Third Amendment), Sindh Local Government Act 2013 (1–3), each union committee should have 11 members, of whom 6 are elected, including the chairman and vice-chairman, and 4 ward councilors. The chairman sits on the Metropolitan Corporation, and vice-chairman on the District Corporations. Committees also include two female members, one non-Muslim member, one labourer/peasant member and one youth member, and they serve a population of between 40,000 and 50,000 (Sindh Act LIII of 2013, 7). The district council covering rural areas includes all 38 union councils, each with a population of around 10,000–15,000 (Sindh Act LIII of 2013, 7).

3. PEIP, “Pakistan Election Information Portal.”

4. Ghori, “MQM Bagging Mayor’s Office.”

5. McLoughlin, “Fragile States.”

6. World Bank, Conflict, Security and Development.

7. McLoughlin, “Fragile States,” 13.

8. OECD, States of Fragility.

9. Beall et al. “Cities, Conflict and State Fragility,” 2.

10. Muggah, “Deconstructing the Fragile City.”

11. Chandhoke, “Inclusive Political Pact, Ahmedabad.”

12. Moser and McIlwaine, “Latin American Urban Violence.”

13. Pécaut, “From the Banality of Violence.”

14. Yiftachel, “Gray cities.”

15. Yiftachel, “Epilogue from ‘Gray Space’.”

16. Yusuf, “Conflict Dynamics in Karachi.”

17. Hasan et al., “Land Contestation in Karachi”; and Hassan et al., Karachi, the Land Issue.

18. Romeo, “Local Governance.”

19. Brinkerhoff, “Rebuilding Governance.”

20. Jackson and Scott, “Local Government in Post Conflict Environments.”

21. Anten et al., “Political Economy of State-building.”

22. Mezzera et al., Devolution, Pakistan.

23. UNDESA, “World Urbanization Prospects.”

24. Gazdar and Mallah, “Informality in Karachi.”

25. Kaker, “Insecurity and Violence.”

26. Waseem, “Ethnic Conflict in Pakistan”; and Gayer, Karachi: Ordered Disorder.

27. Hasan et al., Understanding Karachi.

28. Gayer, “Karachi: Ordered, Disorder.”

29. Anwar, “Urban Transformations in Karachi.”

30. Arfeen, “27 Thousand People Killed.”

31. World Bank, “Karachi City Diagnostic.”

32. MQM, ANP, PAC, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).

33. Yusuf, “Conflict Dynamics in Karachi.”

34. Alam, “Pakistan’s Devolution of Power Plan (DOPP)”; and Khwaja et al., “Local Government Reforms.”

35. CLGF, Commonwealth Local Government.

36. Alam, “Pakistan’s DOPP.”

37. UNDP, “The Local Government Acts.”

38. Alam, “Pakistan’s DOPP”; and Alam, “Civil Service Reform.”

39. See note 37.

40. UNDP, “The 18th Constitutional Amendment.”

41. See note 37.

42. See note 40.

43. See not 29.

44. Zulfiqar, “Karachi, Suo Motu.”

45. Dawn, “Karachi Operation to start.”

46. Ali, “Karachi Operation.”

47. Shahbazi, “Operation has Done Little.”

48. Interview, Dawn Newspaper, 2017.

49. See note 40.

50. See note 21.

51. See note 36.

52. See note 22.

53. Gayer, Karachi: Ordered Disorder, 13.

54. Gayer, Karachi: Ordered Disorder; and Gayer, “Guns, Slums.”

55. Dawn, “Flashpoints in Karachi.”

56. Hashim, “Killings Seep Karachi.”

57. The last census was in 1998, so it is impossible to estimate the population from formal sources. This estimate is thus derived from union council estimates and from the local knowledge of key informants.

58. See note 36.

59. Yusuf, Conflict Dynamics in Karachi, 3.

60. From 2013, since the neutralization of ANP, other political parties have emerged, and in the 2015 local government elections, PPP managed developed a coalition to win Pahar Gunj Union Committee UC-20.

61. Sahoutara, “Baldia Inferno.”

62. Yiftachel, “Epilogue from ‘Gray Space.”

63. See note 28.

64. See note 19.