The Baloch of Lyari are the oldest residents of Karachi and are paying for the good that they have done. Unfortunately, Lyari has been a playground for politicians who enjoy enormous gains but for the people of Lyari it is a bloody gun battle in one of the worst slums in the world. Today battles are fought not for principles but for monetary gains. The geopolitical situation of the region is an example and the same is the case with Lyari. Certain elements were given unprecedented powers and immunity from law to exercise their own powers within a government. These elements being uneducated, short-sighted
and seeing short-term gains fell to the trick and now the process has started to eliminate them, though earlier they were patronised. There can be two main reasons for what is happening today or what has been planned and made to happen in Lyari. First, it is a majority Baloch area and the Baloch population is now being treated as Red Indians to live within this enclosure.
Secondly, the land value of Lyari could be the main factor where a situation is being created so that the local population is forced to leave their homes or sell their properties at throwaway prices and gradually the whole population is forced to disperse when opportunists will grab chunks of this valuable land and make enormous money out of it. Once upon a time when most of the people in Lyari worked for the Karachi Port Trust and today when politics have changed and there is no one to hear to the people’s complaints about their woes, the Lyariites have been gradually rendered jobless and phased out of the Karachi Port. Hence, Lyari has the highest rate of unemployment in comparison to other parts of Karachi.
ABID S. MUSTIKHAN,
Karachi, May 3.