Well, I am getting my feet wet all of a sudden trying to understand this because of my investment in the Baharia Town Karachi. Otherwise, I have not cared for the Pakistani politics much in decades.
I am going to post a video here which summarizes things quite well. It's in Urdu but I will give a summary of what I have understood so far based on this and other videos.
So Baharia Town Karachi (BTK) is a new gated community around Karachi. It is considered part of Karachi city. A multibillionaire guy Malik Riaz (MR) bought a good bit of fairly barren land which now becomes BKT. MR, allegedly, paid too little money to buy the land to Asif Ali Zardari (AAZ) who effectively rules the province of Sindh. People realized that MR has essentially bribed AAZ to get the land cheap. The matter went to the Supreme Court of Pakistan (SCP). MR offered Rs. 200+ billion. But the SCP made him pay Rs. 450+. The matter got settled. But BTK wants to expand beyond that. And I don't know if they have acquired the land for the expansion or not but some villagers have been protesting and there was some violence trying to dislodge them. That needs to be investigated with no mercy shown to MR if he is indeed doing that. Once again, SCP can settle it.
BUT... all this is against the backdrop of Sindh's rural and urban divide, going back decades. Rural Sindhis have been losing to the Urban Sindhis on economic front but not through some carefully crafted machinations by the Urban Sindhis but due to the nature of their societies: One is largely feudal dominated while the other is not only more urbane but also more educated and Upwardly Mobile. So despite spending trillions in Rural Sindh since at least early 1970s, the plight of the Rural Sindh has not changed much. The level of corruption and incompetence is huge in Rural Sindh. They say in America that you can't fix stupid, true, but add to that you can't fix morally bankrupts either.
The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) of which AAZ is the supreme leader, has ruled Sindh most of the time since 1970s and sometime even in the Federal Govt. But they have not dented Rural Sindhis' plightful situation much. Trillions have gone into Rural Sindh but not much to show for. Their medical colleges are Diploma Mill. Women are mostly confined. It is a repressive, retrogressive society where Sindhis--whom I genuinely regard as among the best of Pakistan because of their peaceful, humble nature--are in a perpetual state of backwardness.
It's a long story to tell. I had been a witness to all that growing up in Pakistan through the 1980s. The current crisis, as the following video would show, has its roots in AAZ's attempts to retain power in Sindh by using The Sindh Card--a blackmail to the State of Pakistan that we would secede or at least cause anarchy unless allowed to retain the power in Sindh. AAZ is mobilizing people to threaten the State of Pakistan. The Urban Sindhis are in direct threat because of that and they too are mobilizing and there is a supposed to be their show of strength on Friday; and they are also capable of violence given their history! Add to this power lust of PPP, there are literally tens of billions of $$ at stake in BTK: Cause anarchy, people sell cheap, MR or others would buy, and sell at higher prices....
They say 'follow the money trail'. I'd add or 'follow the power trail' in case of Pakistan.
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