This is a review of the 2022 book, Karachi Vice: Life and Death in a contested city written by Samira Shackle, a freelance British journalist of Pakistani origin. The audiobook on Amazon® Audible® is beautifully narrated by Amina Zia.
The second of the audiobooks that I completed listening to while driving, after Declan Walsh’s Nine lives of Pakistan, is this magnificent 238-page book portraying real life in Karachi city . Karachi is a city that I have (once) always wished to visit. The yesteryear capital of Pakistan, the homeland of Mohd. Ali Jinnah, the biggest city and metropolis in Pakistan – Karachi holds many many crowns. Still, is the city habitable now? No – is what we understand after going through the lives of five real people Safdar, Parveen, Jannat, Zille and Siraj, who lives in Karachi.
The first book that I translated from Malayalam to English was the socio-cultural travelogue written by Mr. Benyamin titled “iratta mukhamulla nagaram” which was wholly about Karachi city. It is presently in its pre-publication stages. My affiliation with Karachi through books started then.
Samira is connected to Karachi through her mother - for it is the city where her mother was born and brought up. The warning given by Samira's aunt as is narrated in the prologue, sets the tone for what follows. Quite interestingly in my book as well, Mr. Benyamin admits to being warned by his friends and relatives about travelling to the “dangerous” Karachi for the Literature Festival.
Karachi, once a trader’s paradise is now la patria of terror, drugs, and violence. It is a city where the affluent are robbed and killed ruthlessly, and people travelling in big cars with smartphones had to change routes quite often to stay less vulnerable. Bombs went off intermittently in public gatherings and inside buses. Just as we had Covid updates daily, local newspapers in Karachi had updates on the number of mishaps of the previous day. Power cuts were frequent. Water had to be delivered in tankers. Mangroves and villages were lost to real estate projects. The book gives the reader an authentic account of the post-partition hostility prevalent in Karachi. She travelled the length and breadth of the city quizzing people and spending time observing their normal lives to write this volume.
Percy Barucha, a freelance writer writes in Hindustan Times about this book, ….different ethnic groups including the Mohajirs, the Pashtuns and the local Sindhis compete in Karachi for limited resources, virtually with no physical space, and basic amenities including sewerage and electricity that have simply been unable to keep up with the city’s uncontrolled, unplanned expansion. The power vacuum in place of an able police force has led to the formation of gangs along ethnic lines, mafias that trade in drugs, protection, and amenities. Over time, most of these gangs have become closely affiliated to political parties, some officially and some covertly. Add to this, the decades that Pakistan has spent under military rule, the countless elected governments overthrown by its army and the crippling effect on state institutions that are now powerless.
Samira gives us the description of Karachi through the eyes of five citizens
1. Safdar – a Pashtun Ambulance driver who speeds through the city collecting dead bodies of people killed in the prevailing violence and he also describes why he took up the perilous job.
2. Parveen – the local school teacher in Lyari who struggles to retain her students and not let them stray away into the local gangs.
3. Siraj – a map maker, city planner and surveyor in Karachi
4. Jannat – a student who later became a mother and housewife who fought to save her Lal Baksh village from a forthcoming township that threatened to annihilate her village with bulldozers. Sameera describes that “farmlands and settlements are being razed (in Karachi) to build a gated banlieue with “world-class” amenities”.
5. Zille – a crime reporter who lies to Sameera three times about his age and who uncovered the link between a terrorist in Lyari and Benazir Bhutto the first lady PM of Pakistan (and of any Muslim State in the world) who (later) gets shot. He loves his job so much that he gives statements like “ when you are on the terrorists’ hit list in Karachi, you know you are a true journalist.”
Samira observes that the unholy association between politics and gangsters is so miserably strong in Karachi that when Parveen (at a point) goes to a local hoodlum for support, she bumps into her relative who was posted by the Government as his bodyguard. Such occurrences are illustrated aplenty in this narrative.
Amidst cruel violence, Sameera also gives sketches of how people discuss politics and violence over tea (chai) and also of people reminiscing their childhood, growing up in a terror-stricken city. She also narrates casual, everyday incidents in life like Safdar’s grandma feigning illness to get him married soon.
This book is a wonder for anyone who wishes to read and understand life in Post-Partition Karachi city. Samira’s voluminous research and controlled narration never lets you take a yawn at any point.
The Book is published by Granta and is available on Amazon (India) for INR 447.
My rating 7/10
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