KARACHI: A former senator and federal minister, Javed Jabbar takes an active interest in diverse fields including international affairs, voluntary work for rural and urban development, the environment, social issues and mass media.

He is associated with conflict-resolution and co-operation initiatives between Pakistan, India and in South Asia and is a member of the longest-running (non-media reported) Pakistan-India Track-II process known as the Neemrana Dialogue since 1992. Bol News queried him on his experiences about the local life of Karachi. Following are excerpts.

 

Tell us all about your Karachi University days and your role in student politics?

 

The three years spent at the University of Karachi (1963-1966) were crammed with discovery, learning, travel, variety, election, hopes, defeat and triumphs. Whatever the outcome the experience was exhilarating. I was one of only six students of the first-ever BA Honours course in the Department of International Relations. There was a charming but disciplined girl from France and there was a Mauritian youth, symbolizing the several nationalities on campus: Palestinian, Jordanian, Egyptian, Iranian, Malaysian.

We had a distinguished faculty comprising Dr A. Kadeer, Professor Shamim Akhtar, Professor Khurshid Haider, Dr Ahsan Choudhry and others. With like-minded male and female students from the Departments of English, Political Science and others, we formed the Students’ Theatre Guild of which Qasim Ishaque and Javed Ali Khan were the leading lights — Anwar Maqsood and Irfan Hussain were also prominent — and I served as secretary. We organized and acted in plays like ‘Julius Caesar’, and two American comedies and took one to Lahore which was called “You can’t take it with you”!

[We] represented the university successfully across the country in English debate contests with Syed Muzaffar Hussain Shah, Akbar Agha, Jamal Pasha, Navid Khan and others and brought home several trophies. Had more fun outside the lecture hall than inside! Contested as an independent candidate for the presidency of the Students Union in 1965-1966 and secured more than double the votes of the NSF candidate who unfortunately reduced a potentially higher share. Lost to Sultan Chawla who was backed by the Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba. But there was no bitterness. We were and still are good friends. Decided not to complete the Honours Programme and took my ordinary BA degree to start working in journalism (She magazine) and advertising for which I had already started freelance creative work. IAL sent me to the UK for six great months in 1967.

 

Throw some light on reasons for growth of ethnic politics in Karachi and formation of All Pakistan Mohajir Students Organisation (APMSO) in Karachi?

 

In view of the huge influx of people from other parts of South Asia into Karachi post-August 1947 followed by internal migration within West Pakistan, the extraordinary diversity of Karachi inevitably led to ethnic and linguistic identity becoming a major factor for self-assertion on an individual level and on a group level. Whenever newness and change intensifies, human beings fall back to their basic features of identity. During my years, the divisions remained mostly peaceful and there was little of the terrible aggression and violence that came with APMSO much later in the 1980s. But the IJT was always there to use rough-arm tactics.

 

What is the role of AMPSO in changing the political scene of Karachi earlier dominated by Jamiat?

 

For the reason stated earlier about ethnic identity providing certainty in times of volatility, but also due to accumulation of sheer rage at growing misgovernance and inequity in various aspects of the city eg public transport, bad living conditions in low-income areas, APMSO created a new space for itself by taking grievance to a new level of violence and aggression beyond the conventional tactics of IJT. The existence of martial law certainly precipitated these negative tendencies.

 

Do you think the ban on students unions was a wrong decision which adversely affected the growth of healthy politics, especially in Pakistan’s biggest city Karachi?

 

Per se, yes, an outright ban was a bad decision but a natural fallout of martial law. However, even though political parties were banned or were under restrictions, it was also long evident that each major party fostered its own wing on campuses. This aggravated schisms and divisions among youth with a poisonous partisanship that diverted from the cohesive, constructive aspects of student union activities.

The weakness of university administrations in the face of both religion-driven units like IJT and ethnic-driven like APMSO meant that essential cultural activities like music, drama, art etc could not be pursued on campus whereas violence and threats of violence could be displayed.  There was also a spillover into the campus of the widespread proliferation of arms in the city and in the country.

 

Do you think shifting of capital from Karachi was a right decision and if so why?

 

Whereas Islamabad has evolved into a distinctive and beautiful capital city, I was disappointed at the decision to move the federal capital from Karachi. If the capital had remained Karachi, the standards of governance, infrastructure and equitable growth would have been far better than what happened after the shift to Islamabad.

 

What is the impact of the Afghan war on Karachi?

 

The ongoing influx was intensified, illegality, criminality, drugs, weapons moved freely into the city and made management, coordination and planning even more difficult.

 

What is the impact of massive migration on Karachi’s socio-political scene?

 

On the one hand, a shift of huge numbers of people in a relatively short period brought remarkable diversity and energy to Karachi. The foundations of its unrivalled, pluralist, cosmopolitan character were laid by massive migration. But, on the socio-political level, there was so much heterogeneity that, while the original pre-1947 inhabitants were virtually submerged and Urdu-speaking migrants became dominant, there was exceptional variety even within the Urdu-speaking community — to the extent that no single community or group could claim to represent the wide diversity of the city. The huge influx certainly brought new labour, talent, skills and opportunities but it also led to inequalities, unplanned, under-supplied settlements and consequent social tensions.

 

What are the reasons for deteriorating law and order situation in Karachi?

 

(i)    Lack of adequate financial investment.

(ii)   Lack of adequate appropriate, accountable, recruitment, training and capacity-building on a continuous basis of civil and paramilitary forces.

(iii) Nexus between corrupted political leaders and police officials and ranks.

(iv) Apathy of citizens, lack of sustained activism.

 

Do you think Karachi should be made a province or a federally administered city?

 

Any change in the status of Karachi should come only as part of a larger, nationwide restructuring of all four provinces into smaller provinces and after a consensus between political representatives of both rural and urban Sindh. Karachi should not be made a federally-administered city.

 

How to bridge the gap between federal and provincial governments?

 

This is a continuous work in progress in all state structures across the world, particularly in a federation. The long overdue provision of a secretariat for the Council of Common Interests has been undertaken recently. This step should be made purposeful and productive. The Inter-Provincial Ministerial Coordination system, the Indus River System Authority and other coordination networks need to be used more frequently and more robustly.

 

What is your solution for Karachi’s problems?

 

(i) Citizens need to take more responsibility instead of pointing fingers at others and preferring their own comfort zones.

(ii) Educated, literate citizens in particular should enhance their participation in and take responsibility for local government institutions and facilities.

(iii) The provincial government should revise its latest LG law and authentically transfer power and resources to the local government spheres of Karachi.

(iv) The federal government should significantly increase its allocation for Karachi to better reflect Karachi’s major contribution to the national economy.

(v) Both the federal PTI and the provincial PPP governments should reduce, if not eliminate their destructive, self-centred attitudes and words about each other and cooperate.

 

Tell us something about your days as information minister in Benazir’s cabinet?

 

I have already written on this experience in the book But, Prime Minister. In a brief period of 10 months from December 1988 to September 1989, I am humbly proud to have initiated a large number of fundamental reforms. Restoring the editorial independence of the state-owned leading English daily, Pakistan Times, and the Urdu Mashriq; ensuring an overall mix of perspectives in the public and private print media; allowing Pakistani journalists to go abroad without requiring them to obtain “no objection” certificates from the ministry; abolishing the “black list” that prevented major public personalities from access to state-controlled audio-visual media; formation of a Wage Board for newspaper employees after a gap of several years; ending newsprint quotas which had become both a major source of corruption and an instrument for keeping media proprietors on a short leash; and, above all, guaranteeing time on news broadcasts to opposition views.

The last of these was a reform that had never occurred before. Even though it was reversed by Benazir Bhutto herself after some months, this reform set the standard for the state and private media to follow in future. Even TIME magazine acknowledged the palpable change that occurred in that period between December 1988 and April 1989. In the second set of 10 months of the same government when I transferred to the ministry of science and technology several new reforms were undertaken in that sphere as well. Read the book!

 

Pakistan Peoples Party and Karachi.
Your views?

 

The PPP is an extremely important national political organization.  Despite its decline over the past 20 years, despite corruption, deviation from its foundational principle, it continues to represent values of modernism and liberalism that are direly needed to counter narrow-minded, extremist viewpoints. The PPP leadership needs to improve its understanding of the unique complexity of Karachi and the fact that PPP does not represent the total diversity of the city.

The party needs willingness to work with others rather than impose a largely rural-based majority on a very different urban reality. The party should also enable the development of a non-family-based ethos to become more self-confident and internally democratic rather than dynastic. Even though I resigned from the party during BB’s second prime ministership in August 1996 because of the above reasons, I wish it well for the future.