Brother, Karachi is extremely complex, socially and politically. The city is home to 25 million people and is the
5th largest metropolitan city in the world. I've spoken about Karachi and my own experience of it in the past (
Read).
To set the stage for you, Karachi is called 'Mini Pakistani' because it is home to all ethnic groups of Pakistan even though it is a
Sindhi city. And then there are large refugee populations Afghan (1 million+), Rohingya (200,000) etc. Having such large refugee populations in a major city will be a non-starter in most parts of the world. This is an important point because how do these poor refugees support themselves? There is barely any aid coming through. With little education, they have few opportunities so they are
forced into criminal activity (drugs, robberies, etc.) and then all sorts of social issues pop up.
Now a well-governed city will be able to deal with any law enforcement and social issues but since Karachi is so diverse socially (Mini Pakistan), no political or governance ideology has taken root in Karachi. Here is a governance breakdown for you:
Karachi (Municipal): Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM)
Sindhi (Provincial): Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP)
Pakistan (Federal): Pakistan Muslim League (PML)
These are three very different political parties: MQM are secularists who are hopelessly corrupt. PPP is an incompetent left-wing party with no vision. PML are centrist-conservatives, corrupt but they are largely competent however they have no control on Karachi (MQM) or Sindh (PPP).
In short, the bureaucratic puzzle of Karachi has manufactured problems like waste management, lack of metro bus and ambulance system, laws on wall chalking, graffiti, health and safety are not enforced because of political interference in police work, etc. I see the video and I can spot the poor Afghan children playing near the dumpsters and yes it is heart breaking. We discuss these bureaucratic issues of Karachi in Pakistan regularly:
Compare this to Punjab province, no one talks about socialism because Shahbaz Sharif, Chief Minister of Punjab, is driving a campaign of privatization, free markets, etc.
Read: ‘Shahbaz Sharif is energetic, reformist’ — The Economist
Likewise in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) province,
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (Pakistan Movement for Justice) who won the election for the first time is depoliticising institutions. The result is KPK has the best police force in Pakistan with zero political interference.
Read:
Meanwhile in Karachi, 13 Inspector Generals (IG) have been changed. Such basic administrative failures have resulted in loss of confidence from the public resulting in extremely low voter turnouts (
Source). I've said for some time now that the social, urban and development, infrastructure etc. issues of Karachi require political will. These are not engineering challenges.