Capturing Karachi

Like nationalist political parties the world over, those in Karachi have come to understand the power that can come from a fear-based agenda. Their bogey: 'Talibanisation'.

Could the Taliban capture Karachi? Talk to a spectrum of people on the streets of the city today, and almost everyone actively rejects such a supposition. "I don't think it's going to happen," says Syed Ali Atif Ghazali, a student at the University of Karachi. "Karachi is not a valley like Swat or a backward area like Wana, surrounded by mountains. It's a metropolitan with a well-developed infrastructure of law-enforcement agencies, with liberal political parties at their back." His view is fairly representative. Indeed, in some the question even brings out a bit of frustration that such a question should be posed in the first place. "I haven't seen any Taliban around here," says Amunuddin, a banker, "and every person with a long beard is not a Taliban." Says Rehmat, who runs a tea stall: "If you think that Pashtuns will support the Taliban in Karachi, you are wrong, my friend. If they really want to support them, then why did Peshawar reject the Taliban? During the 2008 polls, not a single seat went to any religious party in Peshawar."

Such sentiments jive with the common rhetoric surrounding Karachi: namely, that it is one of Pakistan's most cosmopolitan towns, not to mention one farthest from the simmering unrest in the north and west. But a walk down Karachi's streets today seems to convey a jarringly different story, which indicates a fear not evident in the interviews. In markets and on walls along the city's busy roads, one can see massive banners inscribed with anti-Taliban slogans, warning people against the dangers of 'Talibanisation'. And from the tone of these slogans, that 'danger' appears to be imminent.

For the past six months, this anti-Taliban campaign has been sponsored by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), the largest and the most powerful political party in urban Sindh. The MQM largely represents the province's Urdu-speaking community, the Mohajirs, who came from India following Partition and for whom the party was created in the first place. As a community, the Mohajirs are vehemently against the Taliban. "We have proof that the Taliban harbours intentions" – to infiltrate Karachi – "and we will publicise these at the appropriate time," announced Haider Abbas Rizvi, the MQM's secretary of information, recently. He claimed that heavily armed Taliban militants are already arriving in Karachi by their thousands, and gave assurances that the thousands of MQM workers were standing vigilant. Indeed, MQM founder Altaf Hussain, who resides in London, has asked his followers in Karachi to prepare for a bitter fight with the Taliban, advising youths to learn karate and to keep their weapons ready.

Currently, the MQM is the only major group that professes to believe that the Taliban is intent on taking over Karachi. Other political and religious parties, including the ruling Pakistan People's Party, the Awami National Party (ANP) and the Jamaat-i-Islami, which also have large followings in the city, have not taken the MQM's concern – nor the Taliban 'threat' – seriously. The head of the ANP's Sindh chapter, Shahi Syed, has a simple term to describe the MQM's warnings: "rubbish". About the widespread impression that Pashtuns in Karachi are supporting the Taliban, he too points to the 2008 elections in NWFP, saying that the Pashtun community's vote of confidence in the ANP at that time – when it beat the Islamist umbrella party Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, which had been in power in the province since 2002 – was proof enough of how Pashtuns feel about the Taliban and its ideology. During that election, the ANP also managed to grab two seats in the provincial assembly in Sindh, overwhelmingly supported by the Pashtun vote. In Karachi, Pashtuns currently are thought to make up some 30 percent of the city's population, numbering around 3.5 million and rising. Indeed, the tension seems not to be with Taliban elements, but between the MQM and the ANP; in May alone, clashes killed more than 50.

Madrassa masquerade
The MQM leadership says that it is concerned about the large number of madrassas in Karachi and on its outskirts. At these schools, thousands of students are instructed in the fundamentalist Deobandi school of thought, which is also followed by the Taliban. According to a 2003 report by the Sindh police, out of 11,491 madrassas in Pakistan, as many as 869 are in Karachi, hosting more than 226,000 students. Of these madrassas, the report notes, 466 are run by the Ulema-i-Deoband. This writer recently visited several Deobandi madrassas in and around Karachi, to put a question to the scholars there: How would you react if the Taliban were to attempt to capture Karachi?

"There is a lot of confusion about the Taliban's beliefs," said Maulana Aziz Ahmed, the principal of a madrassa in Malir, a suburb east of Karachi. "It's true that they follow the Deobandi school of thought like we do, but we don't subscribe to the version of Islam that they want to impose." The Taliban was born just 15 years ago, he said, adding that his madrassa had been around for four decades now. The maulana continued with a grin, "You can ask people living around here whether we ever force them to offer prayers or maintain long beards."

There are even more significant differences between the Taliban approach and that followed by the Deobandi madrassas of Karachi. In stark contrast to the Taliban, which was archly against the education of girls, there are currently upwards 50 girls-only madrassas throughout Karachi under the umbrella of the Ulema-i-Deoband. Indeed, many suggest that Islam's ability to adapt to local tradition has always been one of its strongest points. "We misinterpret Islam and usually mix it with customs of specific areas, and the end result is different in every part of the world," said Shahnawaz Farooqui, a scholar and senior journalist. As an example, he points to the architecture of mosques around the world, which inevitably reflects local style.

"The Taliban is actually inspired by the traditions and customs of the Pathans," Farooqui said. "Tribal areas on both sides of Pakistan and Afghanistan have almost the same customs: they love independence and freedom more than their lives, and do not tolerate interference by government; they strictly follow their own customs, such as veiling women, carrying weapons, sporting long beards, etc." Farooqui suggests that the Taliban should actually be seen more as enforcing local traditions – and that the actions of its members have little to do with Islam. "So I don't buy the notion that the Taliban could capture Karachi," he said. "They can't, because local Deobandis would stand [against them] with other political and religious parties."

One of those that would contribute to countering any potential step-up in Taliban influence would be the Jamaat-i-Islami, a moderate religio-political party that is believed to have the second-largest number of followers in Karachi, after the MQM. Merajul Huda, its amir in Karachi, blames the government of Pervez Musharraf for 'importing' the Taliban from Afghanistan. "We have actually imposed the US 'war on terror' on ourselves, and still we are losers," Huda said, adding that with the current situation in Swat and elsewhere, Pakistan is now paying the price for that import. When asked about the possibility of a Talibanisation of Karachi, he maintained that he has no such fears whatsoever, and said that such rhetoric is merely political posturing. "It's just part of a political tug-of-war between the ANP and MQM," he said. "The latter is trying to bracket the former with the Taliban in order to create a ruse by which the government could take action against the ANP."

Still, there exists some support for the Taliban, including in Karachi. While visiting madrassas in the city, this writer also interviewed a number of students, who proved a bit more divided in their opinions. "What should I do if I don't get justice?" Abdul Rehman asked in reply to the question on Taliban infiltration, referring to what he feels is a system in which justice can only be achieved through bribes. He said that while he may not agree with the Taliban's version of Islam, he claimed that the Taliban had to be given credit for some positive steps, such as strengthening the justice system and law and order. Abdul said that it should not be surprising that some people support the Taliban as something of a last hope for justice or peace. He and his friends "partially" support the Taliban, he said. Abdul's appeared to be a minority opinion, however. Most of his classmates at the madrassa expressed suspicion at any version of Islam that is enforced through guns.

There also appears to be little love lost between the Taliban and mainstream religious figures, in Karachi and elsewhere. The supreme authority on religious matters in Pakistan, Mufti Muhammad Rafi Usmani, who lives in Darul Uloom Korangi in Karachi, recently visited Swat in an attempt to cool tempers between the government and the local Taliban. But Sufi Mohammad, the founder of the Taliban-aligned Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM), refused even to receive him. "We are closely watching the developments. But let me say that we are not in touch with them," said Mufti Rafi Usmani to this writer, referring to the Taliban. When asked why no Taliban member had ever approached him, the mufti acknowledged the disconnect and said, "Whatever they are doing has nothing to do with Islam as we understand it."

Against the backdrop of the Pakistan Army operation in the Swat Valley, the MQM's anti-Taliban alert has had significant impact in Karachi in recent weeks. Even as millions have fled the valley, often being accepted into homes elsewhere by complete strangers, many have experienced a cold shoulder in Sindh. The nationalist parties in the province, supported by the MQM, have moved to portray the forced migration as yet another attempt to gain safe access to Karachi by the Taliban. In recent weeks, at least two province-wide strike calls have been made by these political forces, to demand that the migrants not be allowed to enter the city. Both were seen as particularly successful: with the exception of some Pashtun-majority areas, both strikes effectively shut down the province.

~ Imran Ghori is associated with ARY News in Karachi.