Editor's Note

One clarion-call from the military government, and Karachi's entire administrative machinery swung into action, full-steam ahead, to foil the ARD's attempts to hold a rally at Karachi's Nishtar Park on May Day.

With clock-work precision, law-enforcement personnel spread over the entire length and breadth of the city, patrolled the streets, erected barricades and arrested and threw several hundred political activists into jail ? all within 48 hours.

Just goes to prove that where there's a political will, there's a way ? to accomplish the impossible. Had the administration displayed such alacrity and efficiency in dealing with the manifold problems of the country's economic nerve centre, Karachi would not have been reduced to the sorry state that it is in presently.

Like an orphan child, Karachi has been left at the mercy of a myriad mafias ? the transport mafia, the builders mafia, the land-grabbers mafia, the crime mafia… But it is still a dream city. A city, that despite all, is still a haven of opportunity and a sanctuary for the dispossessed. A city that has welcomed all who have entered with open arms ? Afghans, Iranians,Sri Lankans, Filipinos, Burmese, Bangladeshis, Arabs. A city bursting at the seams ?14 million people and more to come. A city that has been consistently used and abused. A city that contributes 60 to 70 per cent of the total government revenue but has little to show for itself in terms of infrastructure, amenities, development and progress. A city that is falling apart.

Chief Executive Pervez Musharraf talked, in animated tones, of making Karachi a Hong Kong at the launch of the package for the economic revival of Karachi (PERK), but few were convinced. They have heard every incoming government talk of turning Karachi into a Hong Kong or a Singapore, but somehow the city has always remained light years away from those glittering destinations. Packages have been made ? and unmade, at the drop of a government.They last till a government lasts. And that is Karachi's tragedy.

Karachi is city crying for a permanent solution ? and a holistic one. Not a fragmented, piecemeal solution that is subject to the whims and fancies of those who are in today and out tomorrow. And it needs input from people who have lived in this city and understand its complexities, its problems and its tremendous potential. Remote-controlling it from Islamabad will not work.

Those who live in Karachi do not ask for a Hong Kong or a Singapore. All they ask for is a clean, green, liveable Karachi