If the events in Karachi during 2011 were to be read as a book, the narrative would have few sparks of hope, although plenty to keep the action moving along. Over 400 citizens were killed in the first six months of this year, and almost as many have been shot dead in the two months thereafter. There are multiple factors at the heart of the ongoing violence in the city – politics proper has been replaced with political parties providing cover to mafia groups to perpetuate their influence, gerrymandering has created ghettos of ethnic strife, the police force has become increasingly politicised, lacunae in the law allow those apprehended by the police to be out on the streets soon after arrest and, finally, the political leaders seem to have become even more short-sighted than earlier. As a result, the violence that the city has seen since the 1990s has now become entrenched in the very fabric of society.
There are multiple disputes between the various political actors of Karachi, with local, provincial and national politics all fanning the flames. The relationship between the ruling Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and the largely Sindh-based Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) extends to the federal government, and any disagreement between the two parties ultimately affects politics at the Centre as well as in the city. The Awami National Party (ANP) is a minor partner in Sindh's coalition government, but plays a more critical role in the coalition governments at the Centre as well as in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. Such an extended partnership should, in principle, have brought the parties closer together. In practice, what is being played out on the streets of Karachi is in part a form of score-settling between various stakeholders and in part a larger positioning in the national polity. One thing is clear: irrespective of whether the dispute is over a national-level issue, a provincial one or even a local problem, it is on the streets of Karachi that all these disputes are, currently, sought to be resolved.
The current violence on the streets of Karachi can be traced back to the conflict between the PPP and the MQM over elections that were scheduled to be held in Azad Kashmir during the last week of June. The Azad Kashmir legislative assembly has 41 seats, each of which is bitterly contested due to the numbers game that leads to the election of the Azad Kashmir prime minister. Two of those seats are reserved for Kashmiris settled in Karachi and its outskirts; polls take place in Karachi for these settlers. The polls in Azad Kashmir also need to be seen in a broader context. Despite the fact that the PPP has been doing much of the military establishment's bidding since democracy returned to Pakistan in 2008, there is also a sense that cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan (recently found to be the most popular politician in the country in a public poll) is being groomed by the military establishment to become a major player on the political scene.
The Azad Kashmir polls were then, in essence, an exercise for both the PPP and the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz or PML (N) to drive home the point to the military establishment that they were the two main parties in the country, and that they could not be overlooked in favour of Imran Khan. Aggressive campaigning and lobbying subsequently took place across Azad Kashmir, with both parties mindful of the number of seats required to form a government. In that game, the PPP eventually asked the MQM to let them have one, if not both, of the Azad Kashmir assembly seats from Karachi. In return, once the elections were over and a government formed, the PPP offered not only to give up the seats but also to hand the MQM two official positions, one for a minister and one for an advisor to the Azad Kashmir prime minister.