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.