PEACEW RKS

CONFLICT DYNAMICS IN KARACHI

Huma Yusuf

[ [
Cover photo: iStock. A rare photo of militants belonging to the People’s Amn 

Committee, an underworld gang of mafia 

operating in Karachi’s oldest slum, Lyari.

The views expressed in this report are 

those of the author alone. They do not 

necessarily reflect the views of the 

United States Institute of Peace.

United States Institute of Peace

2301 Constitution Ave., NW

Washington, DC 20037

Phone: 202.457.1700

Fax: 202.429.6063

E-mail: usip_requests@usip.org

Web: www.usip.org

Peaceworks No. 82. First published 2012.

© 2012 by the United States Institute of 

Peace

About the Report

Ethnopolitical, sectarian, militant, and criminal violence 

has claimed more than 7,000 lives since 2008 in Karachi, 

Pakistan’s largest city and financial capital. The city’s 

violent dynamics threaten to destabilize Pakistan, and 

its precarious security situation has serious implications 

for the U.S.-Pakistan bilateral relationship owing to its 

growing role in national and regional terrorism. Despite 

this, the city rarely features in policy discussions about 

Pakistani security. This report highlights Karachi’s integral 

role in a stable and secure Pakistan. It describes the city’s 

multiple and intersecting types of violence, identifies 

violent actors, highlights the systemic issues that drive 

violence, analyzes state initiatives to stem violence and 

reasons why these efforts failed, and calls for the government to tackle the violence’s underlying causes. 

About the Author

Huma Yusuf is a freelance journalist and columnist for the 

Pakistani newspaper Dawn and was the 2010–11 Pakistan 

Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for 

Scholars in Washington, DC. Her reporting on human 

rights and ethnic conflict in Pakistan won the European 

Commission’s Prix Natali Lorenzo for Human Rights and 

Democracy Journalism (2006) and the UNESCO/Pakistan 

Press Foundation Gender in Journalism Award (2005). 
PEACEWORKS • OCTOBER 2012 • NO. 82

CONTENTS

[The key to Karachi’s stability is a representative 

power-sharing agreement among the major political 

parties that reflects the city’s evolving demographics.]

Karachi’s Evolving Violent Landscape ... 6

Karachi’s Multifaceted Violence ... 7

The Broader Context of Karachi Violence ... 20

Inadequate Interventions ... 28

The Challenges of Stabilizing Karachi ... 30

Conclusion ... 31

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CONFLICT DYNAMICS IN KARACHI

Summary

■ Violence in Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city, is multifaceted. Different types of violence—

including ethnopolitical, militant, sectarian, and criminal—have claimed more than 

7,000 lives since 2008. 

■ Violence in Karachi threatens to destabilize Pakistan for both economic and political 

reasons. The city contributes more than 25 percent of gross domestic product, and disruptions in urban economic activities necessarily affect the national economy. Moreover, 

the ethnically diverse city is a battleground for major political parties and thus key to 

domestic political stability. 

■ The armed wings of major political parties, including the MQM, PPP, and ANP, are the 

main perpetrators of urban violence. The parties clash over city resources and funds 

generated through extortion. 

■ Historically, Karachi’s ethnopolitical violence has pitted Urdu-speaking mohajirs

(migrants) of the MQM against Pashtuns represented by the ANP. But clashes between 

the rural, Sindh-based PPP and Karachi-centric MQM are increasing as part of a 

broader power struggle between the city- and provincial-level governments. 

■ Militant groups, including the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and extremist sectarian 

organizations, have consolidated their presence in the city. In addition to drawing new 

recruits and generating funds through criminal activities, militants increasingly attack 

state and security targets in Karachi. 

■ State initiatives to stem violence are superficial and ad hoc, and routinely fail to address 

the underlying causes of Karachi’s violence, including poor urban planning, politicization 

of the police, proliferating seminary networks, and a flawed criminal justice system. 

■ High-level interventions by the Pakistan Army and Supreme Court have helped temporarily disrupt cycles of violence but do not offer sustainable solutions to Karachi’s violent 

politics. 

■ The key to Karachi’s stability is a representative power-sharing agreement among the 

major political parties that reflects the city’s evolving demographics. However, the delay 

in conducting a transparent census and the failure to establish an uninterruptible platform for political negotiations continue to fuel violence. 

Karachi is Pakistan’s largest city and commercial capital. Home to more than 18 million people, 

the city sprawls across 3,530 square kilometers, boasts the highest literacy rates in the country—up to 90 percent in central Karachi—and employs the largest population in the manufacturing, retail, and services sectors. But the city’s cosmopolitanism and economic growth 

are constantly undermined by violent disruptions. In recent years, ethnopolitical, sectarian, 

militant, and criminal violence have claimed thousands of lives and repeatedly paralyzed the 

city’s economic activities. 

Despite the scale and variety of violence in Karachi, domestic and international policy 

discussions about Pakistan’s national security challenges have long focused on the Federally 

Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), the northwestern Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, and 

southern Punjab, where militant groups such as the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and 

Lashkar-e-Taiba (LT) have established strongholds. This trend was exacerbated when Karachi 

was largely spared the militant onslaught that led to the deaths of over 30,000 Pakistanis between 2002 and 2010. 
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But violence has soared in Karachi in recent years: More than 1,800 people were killed in 

the city in 2011 and more than 1,000 in 2010. By one estimate, politically motivated violence 

in Karachi alone accounted for 9.6 percent of all violent deaths in Pakistan in 2011.1 Within 

Pakistan, the political establishment increasingly acknowledges Karachi’s importance to national security. In March 2012 the Pakistani parliament’s much-hyped strategic review of the 

U.S.-Pakistan bilateral relationship was overshadowed by discussions about Karachi’s security 

situation spiraling out of control. U.S. policymakers and the international community at large 

also need to recognize Karachi’s key role in making Pakistan stable and secure. This paper 

therefore aims to describe the types of violence in Karachi and their causes, as well as draw out 

the implications of continuing violence in Karachi for Pakistan’s overall stability. 

Interior Minister Rehman Malik has argued rightly that destabilizing Karachi is akin to 

destabilizing Pakistan. His reasoning is primarily economic: Karachi accounts for more than 

25 percent of Pakistan’s gross domestic product (GDP), 54 percent of central government tax 

revenues, 70 percent of national income tax revenue, and 30 percent of industrial output. In 

2007 Karachi’s per capita output exceeded that of the country by 50 percent.2 Since Karachi 

generates Rs. 2 billion ($21 million) in daily tax revenues, the slightest disruption in the city’s 

economic activities affects the national economy.3 In recent years, however, citywide outbreaks 

of violence routinely closed markets and industries, leading to daily trade and industry losses 

of Rs. 3 billion ($31.5 million) and Rs. 7 billion ($73.6 million), respectively. Policymakers 

who have identified economic stability as a key component of Pakistan’s national stability thus 

should also look to improving security in its financial capital. 

Karachi’s precarious security situation also has serious implications for the U.S.-Pakistan 

bilateral relationship because the city has recently emerged as a hub of militancy and terrorist 

attacks. Against a backdrop of ethnopolitical tensions and demographic pressures, militancy 

has proliferated in Karachi in recent years. Numerous unconfirmed news reports indicate that 

the leadership of the Afghan Taliban has sought sanctuary in Karachi. Home to more than 

3,000 madrassahs, the city is also one of the preferred sanctuaries, organizational hubs, and 

fundraising and recruitment grounds of the TTP as well as banned sectarian outfits and other 

militant groups. In 2011 one of the TTP’s most audacious attacks unfolded in the heart of 

Karachi, when militants stormed the Pakistan Naval Station (PNS) Mehran naval base and 

battled security forces for fifteen hours, killing thirteen people and destroying two P-3C Orion 

maritime surveillance aircraft. Along with Pakistan’s northwestern tribal belt, Karachi also has 

emerged as a vital hub of terrorism. In November 2011 Sindh Home Minister Manzoor Husain Wasan acknowledged that the city remained under constant threat of terrorist attacks. 

That same month, the global consulting firm Mercer ranked Karachi 216th out of 221 cities—

the lowest in the Asia-Pacific region—on a personal safety index that accounted for ethnic and 

sectarian violence as well as terrorist attacks.4 

The TTP and other militant groups’ consolidating their presence in the city, well out 

of reach of American drone strikes and counterinsurgency initiatives, could be perceived as 

Pakistani ambivalence about fighting terrorism within its borders and therefore further strain 

relations with the United States. The city’s role in international terrorism already has been 

highlighted: LT militants trained for a few weeks in Karachi before setting sail from the city’s 

port for Mumbai, India, where they launched coordinated attacks that killed more than 170 

people in November 2008. Faisal Shahzad, the American citizen of Pakistani origin who attempted to bomb New York’s Times Square in May 2010, successfully connected with TTP’s 

network in Karachi when seeking militant training. 
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CONFLICT DYNAMICS IN KARACHI

Unrest in Karachi also threatens the safe passage of North Atlantic Treaty Organization 

(NATO) supplies and equipment through the city. Before the supply route was suspended in 

November 2011, following an attack by NATO forces against a Pakistan Army checkpost near 

the Afghan border, 1,300 containers containing sustainment supplies and 1,000 fuel tankers 

were being transported from Karachi Port to Afghanistan each month. At times of heightened 

U.S.-Pakistan tensions, these supplies have been subject to arson attacks in the city. Their passage is also impeded or blocked when ethnopolitical or sectarian strife paralyzes Karachi. If the 

Pakistani and U.S. governments reach an agreement regarding ground lines of communication, 

primarily to withdraw NATO equipment from Afghanistan as part of the drawdown process, 

NATO goods could be at risk of attack or theft while in transit through Karachi, not only 

because of the growing presence of militant groups, but also because of negative public opinion 

regarding the reopening of supply lines. 

Moreover, consignments shipped under the Afghanistan-Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement, which came into effect in June 2011, are processed at Karachi Port. The U.S.-sponsored 

agreement is an important part of Washington’s strategy to reduce Afghan dependency on 

foreign aid by spurring economic growth and fostering regional cooperation. Afghanistanbound containers are also at risk of being waylaid, robbed, or attacked during citywide violence 

or related strikes in Karachi. Such disruptions could further strain Afghan-Pakistan relations 

and threaten the viability of the agreement. As such, Karachi plays a role in U.S. strategies to 

stabilize Afghanistan after the withdrawal of International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) 

troops in 2014. 

Foreign policy considerations aside, Karachi is key to domestic political stability and democracy in Pakistan. As the country’s largest and most ethnically diverse city, it is a battleground for major political parties, which claim competing constituencies in its ethnically 

segregated neighborhoods. Violence in the city is frequently used as a negotiating tactic to 

sway provincial- or federal-level decision-making; when it gets out of control, it threatens the 

viability of the ruling coalition government. For this reason, Karachi is also one of the places in 

Pakistan most vulnerable to army intervention, making it a significant fault line in Pakistan’s 

tenuous democratic setup. During bouts of ethnopolitical violence in the summer of 2011, 

Karachi’s business, trade, and industrial communities repeatedly called for the army to declare 

a state of emergency in the city and assume control of security. Although the Pakistan army did 

not take this drastic step, choosing instead to work behind the scenes to pressure politicians to 

negotiate, such intervention could be seamlessly staged since the paramilitary Rangers, rather 

than the underresourced police force, manage Karachi’s security. 

Given the importance of a stable Karachi to national and regional stability as well as the 

U.S.-Pakistan relationship, this report aims to document the city’s multifaceted and evolving 

causes of urban violence. It does not attempt to recapitulate the history of ethnopolitical violence, militancy, and crime in Karachi, but to update and refine existing research on violence 

in the city by pointing to emergent political, demographic, governance-related, and criminal 

factors that have driven violence in recent years. 

Until now, discussion of Karachi in the international media and among U.S. policymakers 

has been limited largely to its role as a possible sanctuary for the Afghan Taliban. Domestically, 

meanwhile, focus on the political dynamic of Karachi and its implications for federal-level 

political coalitions has overwhelmed any explorations of the overlapping systemic and security 

issues that drive violence in the city. By holistically analyzing the types of urban violence in 

Karachi and the challenges of mitigating them, this report aims to show how these disparate 

Karachi is key to domestic 

political stability and 

democracy in Pakistan.
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concerns emerge from the same circumstances. The report thus aims to generate a nuanced 

debate among Pakistani policymakers and with their U.S. and other international counterparts on Karachi’s integral role in a stable Pakistan and the policies required to stem violence 

in the city. By drawing attention to Karachi as a potential fault line in U.S.-Pakistan security 

cooperation, it also seeks to prioritize the city’s security in bilateral discussions on counterterrorism initiatives. 

The report also goes beyond describing violent dynamics to highlight the systemic issues 

and social conditions that drive violence. Present-day Karachi offers a glimpse into a potential 

future Pakistan, where the state has abdicated all responsibility for governance, service delivery, 

and maintaining law and order. By showing that the roots of Karachi’s violence lie in political 

fragmentation, economic disparity, ghettoization, and a lack of governance resulting from poor 

land and resource allocation, this report seeks to inspire effective policymaking to tackle the 

underlying causes of violence. Such efforts would help prevent Karachi’s violent history from 

being replicated in other cities, in a country that is urbanizing at the fastest rate in South Asia: 

50 percent of all Pakistanis will live in cities by 2030.5

Karachi’s Evolving Violent Landscape 

Karachi has long suffered violent disruptions. The influx of mohajirs, Urdu-speaking migrants from 

northern India, to the city during the partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947 forced the creation of unplanned settlements. Until the 1980s, mohajir entrepreneurs managed and apportioned 

illegal subdivisions of the settlements. This status quo was challenged, however, by Pashtuns, who 

had been migrating to Karachi from northwestern Pakistan since the 1960s in search of work. As 

mohajir entrepreneurs sought to retain control over squatter settlements as well as the means of 

public transport in the city, ethnic tensions between mohajirs and Pashtuns mounted, leading to 

Karachi’s first citywide ethnic riot in April 1985, which claimed more than a hundred lives. 

In 1987 the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), a political party formed to represent 

mohajirs, won its first electoral victory, adding a political dimension to the spiraling urban violence. This violence was fueled by the flow of firearms into Karachi following the anti-Soviet 

jihad in Afghanistan, and the city quickly fragmented into enclaves controlled by ethnic militias. Since the 1980s the mohajirs and Pashtuns have engaged in ethnopolitical clashes over 

control of the city’s infrastructure and inadequate resources. 

In the early 1990s Pakistan’s army launched Operation Clean Up to cleanse mohajir

neighborhoods of militias. However, to avoid charges of targeting a political party, the army 

soon handed the operation over to the Sindh police and paramilitary Rangers. During the 

civilian operation, the extrajudicial killing of mohajir militia members was rampant, leading to extreme tensions between the MQM and the ruling political party—the Pakistan 

Peoples Party (PPP) under Benazir Bhutto in 1992, and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz 

(PMLN) in 1994. Through largely extrajudicial means, the operation eliminated or weakened 

MQM militias, leading to a decline in ethnopolitical violence in the late 1990s and early 

2000s. In addition to ethnopolitical violence, however, Karachi witnessed the rise of extremist 

Sunni Muslim militant groups in the 1990s that targeted prominent Shia Muslims. Intense 

police action against such groups in the late 1990s, during which militants were arrested or 

killed, led to a significant decline in sectarian violence in the early and mid-2000s. 

Since 2008 Karachi has again been racked with violence, in which more than 7,000 people 

have been killed. Particularly prolonged and brutal stretches of ethnopolitical violence killed 

more than 1,000 people in 2010,6 1,891 in 2011,7 and at least 740 in the first five months of 

Present-day Karachi offers 

a glimpse into a potential 

future Pakistan, where 

the state has abdicated 

all responsibility for 

governance, service 

delivery, and maintaining 

law and order. 
7

CONFLICT DYNAMICS IN KARACHI

2012.8 In September 2011 the director-general of the Rangers, tasked with restoring law and 

order in the city, described the security situation in Karachi as “worse than North Wazirisistan 

Agency,” the tribal area where the Pakistani Taliban and other Afghanistan-focused militant 

groups have sought sanctuary. 

The ongoing stretch of violence in Karachi is significantly more complex and explosive 

than the situation in the 1980s and 1990s for several reasons. Previously, the armed militias 

of the MQM were the primary violent actors in the city. In the past decade, however, the 

demographic profile of Karachi has changed, owing to the steady migration of Pashtuns from 

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and FATA. These Pashtuns increasingly enjoy political representation 

through the Awami National Party (ANP). Karachi’s Pashtun population has also benefited 

from the transportation boom triggered in 2001 by the supply of NATO goods from Karachi 

Port to Afghanistan. Their increased economic clout has allowed them to better organize and 

equip themselves to confront the armed wings of the MQM. Not surprisingly, a greater number of violent actors has worsened the security situation. 

The federal government’s unwillingness to take strong action against perpetrators has also 

caused violence to escalate. In the 1990s the ruling PPP government was willing to crack 

down against the MQM because it did not depend on the MQM to stay in power. Since then, 

Pakistani federal-level politics has changed, with a coalition government replacing one-party 

rule. Since the 2008 general election the PPP, MQM, and ANP have been coalition partners. 

The ruling PPP is thus hard-pressed to act against the warring parties of Karachi, as doing so 

risks severed ties with either the MQM or the ANP and consequently its own ruling position. 

Karachi’s violence has contributed to the government coalition’s fragility. Disagreements with 

the PPP over how to share power and resources in Karachi led the MQM to quit the coalition 

three times during its tenure, leading to fears that the government could collapse. 

At the same time, dynamics within the coalition have fueled violence in Karachi. The ANP 

has positioned itself as an indispensable PPP ally at the federal level, inviting increased cooperation in Karachi as well. The stronger ANP-PPP alliance has boosted each party’s political 

standing in Karachi against the MQM and led to more fierce clashes among all three political 

actors. Moreover, the PPP has been emboldened by both its ruling position at the federal level 

and its majority in the Sindh provincial government to make inroads in Karachi, adding a third 

political actor to the city’s violent dynamic. 

Even as Karachi’s political landscape has become more complex, the city has witnessed the 

emergence of more than two hundred well-armed and well-organized criminal gangs, which 

operate independently and in conjunction with political parties. Their activities—including 

extortion, arms trafficking, smuggling, kidnapping, and robberies—have severely degraded the 

overall security situation in Karachi. The deterioration of law and order has also allowed militant groups with sectarian agendas to regroup and again contribute to urban violence. Most 

important, the city is vulnerable to new violent actors in the form of TTP militants and their 

proliferating affiliates. This militant threat adds a new dimension and potency to Karachi’s violence, giving it both national and regional significance in a way that ethnopolitical tensions in 

the past did not. The intersecting and overlapping forms of urban violence make the current security situation in Karachi particularly volatile, requiring a timely and comprehensive response. 

Karachi’s Multifaceted Violence 

As the above suggests, although long described as a conflict between mohajirs and Pashtuns, 

Karachi’s violence is multifaceted: It is ethnopolitical, criminal, militant, and sectarian. The 

Karachi’s violence 

is multifaceted: It is 

ethnopolitical, criminal, 

militant, and sectarian.
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distinctions among different types of violence do not imply that they are mutually exclusive; 

in Karachi, one type of violence often instigates killings in a very different context. In August 

2010 the assassination of a prominent MQM politician on sectarian grounds led to widespread 

ethnopolitical violence between mohajirs and Pashtuns. Land grabs by organized criminal 

groups have sparked clashes between political parties, including the MQM and Sunni Tehrik, 

which vie for territorial control in different parts of Karachi. Moreover, Karachi is increasingly 

witnessing a trend of freelance militancy, whereby guns for hire simultaneously operate on 

behalf of militant and sectarian groups, political parties, and criminal gangs. 

Ethnopolitical Violence 

Karachi saw a dramatic surge in ethnopolitical violence in 2010 and 2011. In 2010 over 1,000 

people were killed in target killings—tit-for-tat assassinations aimed at members of rival political parties and their corresponding ethnic groups—followed by 1,891 in 2011 and more 

than 740 in the first five months of 2012. The violence reached record levels in July and August 

2011, when 324 and 229 people were killed, respectively. The main perpetrators of this violence 

were the armed wings of major political parties and criminals with links to those parties. 

The connections between mainstream political parties and target killers are well established. 

A Sindh Home Department joint investigation team report—assembled by intelligence agencies representatives, including the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Intelligence Bureau (IB), 

Military Intelligence (MI), and Criminal Investigation Department (CID), and completed in 

September 2011—revealed links between criminals and political parties. The report included 

the testimonies of twenty-six accused target killers, allegedly involved in violence in Karachi 

in 2010, who confessed to affiliations with the MQM, ANP, and MQM-Haqiqi (a breakaway 

faction of the MQM) as well as various banned militant organizations. The report lacked credibility in public and media opinion because it did not identify any target killers affiliated with 

the ruling PPP party, but was nonetheless accepted by the Supreme Court and the Inspector 

General of Sindh Police, who assigned a task force to arrest those named in the report. 

Historically, target killers and criminals have been deployed in ethnopolitical violence between Karachi’s mohajirs, represented by the MQM party, and Pashtuns, represented by the 

ANP. As recently as 2007 a political showdown between the MQM and ANP threatened to 

spark widespread ethnic violence: On May 12 of that year, the MQM, which formed the government with then-president Pervez Musharraf, organized to prevent the arrival in Karachi of 

Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, a Supreme Court chief justice whom Musharraf had deposed. 

The MQM’s plans were opposed by the ANP and PPP, which at the time formed the opposition at the federal level. MQM party workers were accused of launching highly coordinated 

attacks against ANP and PPP supporters, killing forty-three people, primarily Pashtuns. Fourteen MQM workers were also killed in retaliatory actions.

Since the May 12, 2007, clashes, the ANP has consolidated its political presence in Karachi. For the first time the party won two seats out of forty-two from Karachi in the Sindh provincial assembly during the 2008 general elections; the MQM won thirty-four, while the PPP 

secured six seats. By adopting a narrative of ethnic victimization, the ANP claims to represent 

Karachi’s Pashtun population, which it estimates to be 22 percent of the total, up from about 

12 percent in 1998. The party’s reach has been bolstered by the migration of over 300,000 

Pashtuns, who have fled to the city in recent years to escape the fallout of military operations 

against militants in Pakistan’s tribal belt and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. 

The ANP’s political and demographic gains have led the MQM to fear that it is losing the 

grip over Karachi that it has enjoyed since a landslide victory in the 2005 general elections. 
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CONFLICT DYNAMICS IN KARACHI

The party previously won control of the city during the 1988 general elections. Mohajirs currently make up 48 percent of Karachi’s population, but the MQM, unlike the ANP and PPP, 

has no provincial base from which to draw new supporters. The recent surge in ethnopolitical 

violence is therefore understood to be a show of strength before the 2013 general elections, 

during which, some analysts argue, the MQM can be expected to resort to all measures necessary to maintain its dominant political position. In this context, frequent target killings aim to 

discourage further migration to the city. But violence is also used to accommodate for the city’s 

shifting demographics: Since the transfer of a few thousand votes from one constituency to 

another can greatly affect election results, target killings have been used to terrorize members 

of an ethnic group into relocating to safer, ethnically homogenous areas. As such, violence has 

been used to demarcate electoral zones along ethnic lines. 

The ethnopolitical clashes between mohajirs and Pashtuns also is no longer the only violent 

ethnic dynamic in the city: Ethnic Sindhis and Balochis, represented by the PPP, increasingly 

have taken part. Like Pashtuns, Sindhis have migrated to Karachi—the provincial capital of 

the Sindh province—in significant numbers in search of employment. Refugees affected by 

successive summers of flooding in 2010 and 2011 also relocated to Sindhi goths (villages) that 

cluster around the city’s periphery, particularly near entry and exit points along the National 

Highway. With a growing constituency in the city, the PPP is eager to gain access to the city’s 

limited land, utilities, and financial resources with which to woo potential voters. The PPP is 

also seeking better representation in Karachi: In the 2008 elections it won over a quarter of the 

popular vote in Karachi, but only three out of the twenty National Assembly seats from the city 

owing to outdated electoral districting.9 

The PPP’s growing constituencies are not, however, the primary reason for a widening 

MQM-PPP fault line in the city. The parties and the ethnic groups they represent have an 

antagonistic history. After Partition-era mohajir resettlement in Karachi, Sindhis resented being marginalized on their own turf: According to Sindhi nationalist party leaders, Sindhis 

constituted 60 percent of Karachi’s population in 1947 but now amount to only 7 percent of 

the total.10 This resentment flared in the 1970s, when Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, an ethnic Sindhi 

and founder of the PPP, came to power and instituted quotas for Sindhis and mohajirs, limiting the latter’s access to government jobs, educational seats, and development benefits. These 

policies led to the language riots of 1972.11 Subsequently the parties formed a coalition for the 

1988 general elections, but their supporters continued to clash. In 1992 the army operation to 

cleanse Karachi of MQM’s armed militias—during which thousands of party activists were 

killed in encounters with security forces—was launched under former prime minister Benazir 

Bhutto’s first government. 

Thus, while the violent history is rooted in specific tensions between rural and urban, province and city, bureaucracy and decentralized local governance, it is ultimately a clash between 

the rural-Sindh-based PPP and Karachi-based MQM over the city’s resources and administration. Karachi contains 30 percent of Sindh’s total population, employs 71.6 percent of the 

total industrial labor force of Sindh, generates 74.8 percent of the province’s total industrial 

output, and provides 78 percent of all private sector jobs in the province.12 Without Karachi, 

Sindh is relatively underdeveloped and impoverished, and yet Sindhis struggle for political 

representation and access within the provincial capital. Sindhi nationalist political parties, such 

as the Sindh Tarraqi Passand Party, Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM), and Awami Tehrik 

(AT), often cite this grievance. More recently, some PPP elements also have seized the narrative of greater Sindhi representation in Karachi. In 2011, former Sindh home minister and 

PPP representative Zulfiqar Mirza began championing Sindhi rights and issuing anti-MQM 
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comments. His diatribes led to intense ethnopolitical clashes in the summer of 2011. On July 

14, after Mirza made slurs against the Urdu-speaking community during a televised press conference, gunfights broke out that killed fourteen people. According to Taj Haider, the general 

secretary of the PPP in Sindh, the party remains divided on this strategy for gaining political 

power in Karachi: While some argue that playing the Sindh card is an effective way for the 

PPP to counter MQM dominance, the majority are in favor of a good working relationship 

with the MQM.13

Whatever relationship the PPP and MQM establish, Sindhis are likely to have a growing 

voice in Karachi’s political dynamic. In March 2012 the JSQM staged a rally in Karachi to call 

for an independent Sindh province. A few days later, to protest government delays in investigating the cause of the sudden death on April 7 of the party’s leader, Bashir Qureshi, the JSQM 

announced a strike. The strike call was observed across the city as markets closed, public transport 

halted, and three men were killed in firing incidents, demonstrating the increasing street power 

of Sindhi nationalist parties.14 Two months later, on May 22, the Sindhi nationalist party AT organized a rally to oppose the increasing appearance of graffiti calling for a separate mohajir province to be carved out of Sindh. Unidentified snipers opened fire on the rally, leading to clashes 

throughout the city in which thirteen people were killed and thirty-five injured.15

Since 2010, mohajir-Sindhi tensions have also crystallized in a tussle over which local government system to adopt in the province. The PPP favors the Sindh Local Government Ordinance 

(SLGO) 1979, which retains powers—including land and revenue allocation—at the provincial 

level, relies on appointed commissioners, and divides Karachi into five administrative districts. 

For its part, the MQM favors the SLGO 2001, which devolves power from the province to the 

district level, empowers elected nazims (mayors), and unifies Karachi under one city district government, facilitating single-party control of the city. The MQM’s appetite for the nazim system 

was nurtured during the tenure of former president Musharraf, who sidelined the mainstream 

political parties, the PPP and PMLN, and appeased his allies in the MQM by tailoring SLGO 

2001 to enhance the party’s political reach in Karachi and Hyderabad. 

The PPP and Sindhi nationalist parties have long complained that the 2001 system undercuts the authority of the provincial government by creating fiefdoms under elected mayors 

over which the province has little control.16 Under SLGO 1979, the PPP would be better 

positioned to govern Karachi because Sindhis control the bureaucracy and have a majority 

in the Sindh provincial assembly. The MQM, meanwhile, has greatly benefited from the decentralized SLGO 2001 because it has been able to negotiate benefits for its Urdu-speaking 

constituents in Karachi without a significant presence in the provincial bureaucracy. 

Disagreements over which local government system to adopt led the MQM to quit the 

coalition government in June 2011, after which the PPP revived the commissioner system under SLGO 1979. This move sparked prolonged bouts of violence in Karachi, causing the PPP 

to capitulate and revive the SLGO 2001 through a gubernatorial ordinance; the ordinance 

lapsed in November 2011, and Karachi is now governed under the SLGO 1979. The seesawing 

between systems has exacerbated the lack of governance and effective service delivery at the 

grassroots level across Karachi. It has also highlighted how widespread urban violence is used 

as a political tool for parties to gain the upper hand during deadlocked negotiations and extract 

concessions from their rivals. As such, Karachi’s violence can be understood as a symptom of 

debilitated democratic processes. 

Since the start of 2012 the MQM and PPP have been jointly drafting a new local government system based on stakeholder consensus and had exchanged initial power-sharing ideas 

by April. The new system is expected to borrow elements from both SLGO 1979 and 2001, 
11

CONFLICT DYNAMICS IN KARACHI

as well as from Z.A. Bhutto’s 1972 draft of a system called the People’s Government System 

and a 1986 draft of a system prepared by PPP activist Kamal Azfar. The PPP is expected to 

concede to MQM’s demand for a decentralized system, but wants to implement checks and 

balances on the powers of the elected nazims; the PPP also wants MQM’s support in appointing one of its own activists as the minister overseeing local government at the provincial level. 

Failure to finalize a compromise system before the 2013 general elections could spark further 

political violence as the two parties attempt to gain concessions vis-à-vis the draft in exchange 

for forming new coalition setups at the federal and provincial level, all while competing at the 

ballot box in Karachi. 

Electoral violence is also likely if Karachi’s major political parties do not uniformly accept 

the electoral rolls that the Election Commission of Pakistan has prepared. In March 2012 

all the political parties represented in the Sindh Assembly complained of irregularities in the 

lists of registered voters and called for their verification. Disagreements on the composition of 

these lists could lead to violent clashes for control over polling stations during general elections. 

Concerns about voter lists—as well as contradictory political narratives by the MQM, PPP, 

and ANP about Karachi’s shifting demographics—stem partly from delays in conducting the 

national census. Pakistan’s last census was completed in 1998 and a new population count is 

more than three years overdue. The lack of accurate census data on Karachi perpetuates problems of inadequate service delivery and poor governance. It also fuels violence as political parties exaggerate or underestimate their total constituencies in the service of narratives of ethnic 

marginalization that, in turn, fuel interethnic clashes. 

That said, all the major parties stand to be negatively affected by a transparent census: Official documentation of the expansion of Karachi’s Pashtun population would lead to redistricting in favor of the ANP at MQM’s expense. ANP’s narrative of ethnic marginalization could 

be compromised if there are fewer Pashtuns in the city than the party claims. An accurate count 

of Karachi’s ever-expanding population would lead to provincial revenue being directed away 

from PPP’s rural Sindhi supporters to the city. It is thus not surprising that the first housecount phase of the national census, which commenced in Karachi in April 2011, was marred by 

violence as three census workers were shot dead. In the current political environment, a census 

count is simultaneously a panacea and potential trigger for ethnopolitical violence. 

Crime 

Karachi’s ethnopolitical violence is facilitated by an overall crisis in law and order. Many of 

the gunmen involved in target killings were not political party activists, but members of one 

of approximately two hundred criminal gangs in the city, many of which boast affiliations 

with mainstream political parties. The gangs foster a perpetual sense of insecurity in the city 

by engaging in various criminal activities. In 2011 there were 1,490 reported vehicle snatchings, more than 12,500 mobile phone thefts, 113 kidnappings for ransom, and 1,683 armed 

robberies in Karachi.17 Police officials readily acknowledge that these statistics are gross 

underestimates, as most victims choose not to report crimes, demonstrating a pervasive lack 

of trust in the police. The incidence of crime in Karachi is extremely high, but criminal activities with political dimensions are the most disruptive to Karachi’s stability. 

Many criminal gangs operate land mafias that manage the apportioning and sale of encroached land. These mafias occupy commercial plots, government land, and illegal squatter 

settlements—often through violent or illegal means, including intimidation, forgery, bribery, 

and arson—and sell them to the highest bidders. There is necessarily a connection between 

the land mafias and political parties. Given systemic failures in urban planning in Karachi, 

The incidence of crime in 

Karachi is extremely high, 

but criminal activities with 

political dimensions are 

the most disruptive to 

Karachi’s stability. 
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PEACEWORKS 82

political parties rely on land mafias to provide real estate, utilities connections, roads, and other 

infrastructure for their constituents in areas that have been illegally and thus poorly developed. 

Land grabbers, for their part, use political connections to regularize squatter settlements, gain 

permission to convert amenity plots (allocated for parks and community centers) into commercial or residential property, and secure permits to develop properties, often purchased for a 

fraction of their market value after threats or acts of violence. 

Land grabs often spark ethnic clashes. Residents belonging to one ethnic group are pressured to evict a locality by land mafias affiliated with the political party of a rival ethnic group. 

Harassed residents then put up armed resistance, sparking citywide ethnic clashes. In 2011 

ANP supporters tried to occupy a predominantly Christian area in Ittehad Town. The MQM, 

which boasts a secular mandate and seeks votes from religious minorities, retaliated, leading to 

two days of fighting and the closure of businesses in the area for over a week. Similarly, a tussle 

over land between MQM workers and members of a Pashtun land mafia in Gulzar-e-Hijri 

(Scheme 33) in April 2009 led to citywide ethnic riots in which twenty-three people were 

killed.18 Kati Pahari remains a major flashpoint. Conceived as a recreational park project by the 

city government that preceded the MQM—a coalition of religious political parties that came 

to power in 2002—the area has been encroached by supporters of both the MQM and ANP 

in recent years. Clashes between the rival groups are so frequent that ten check posts of the 

paramilitary Rangers have been established around Kati Pahari to maintain security. 

Land grabbers have also been known to exploit ethnic tensions to attract new and often 

higher-paying tenants to a locality. Without the consent of political parties, they plant their 

party flags around an area, thereby creating ethnic zones; residents from ethnic groups not 

represented by that party then feel compelled to relocate. That said, land mafias are not strictly 

committed to promoting the political parties’ ethnic agendas. While parties aim to create ethnically homogenous areas to secure electoral victories, land grabbers sell land and properties 

to the highest bidder, often creating heterogeneous dwellings. This practice will cause more 

frequent interethnic clashes in the short term, but it could prevent the complete ghettoization 

of Karachi along ethnic lines in the long term. 

Criminal gangs also operate weapons mafias, supplying illegal, unlicensed, and prohibitedbore small arms to criminals and political party workers. The weapons mafias have been able 

to inundate the city with arms by forging arms licenses and illegally acquiring hundreds of 

weapons on a single license.

Karachi’s largest and most powerful criminal gangs operate out of Lyari, a slum settlement with a population of over 1 million. Historically Lyari is a PPP stronghold and a hub of 

drug smuggling, weapons trafficking, extortion, kidnapping, and gang warfare. By 2008 Lyari’s 

warring gangs had been brought under the control of Rehman Dakait, a notorious gangster 

who formed the People’s Amn Committee (PAC) to sustain a durable ceasefire in the slum. 

Dakait’s death in August 2008 led to a war of succession, during which Uzair Baloch took 

over the PAC with the backing of PPP minister Zulfiqar Mirza. Originally, PPP’s involvement with the PAC was premised on gaining access to the vast funds generated by the committee’s criminal activities. According to Karachi-based journalists, the PAC emerged as a de 

facto armed wing of the PPP during the violence of 2010 and 2011 and was used to counter 

MQM dominance.19 Notably, most Lyari residents, and thus members of the PAC, are ethnically Baloch; their increasing involvement in the city’s political-criminal nexus has added yet 

another ethnic dimension to Karachi’s urban violence.

Some of the most brutal incidents of abduction, torture, target killings, and corpse dumping have been blamed on the PAC, which focused its activities against MQM supporters 
13

CONFLICT DYNAMICS IN KARACHI

in the broader context of tensions between the coalition partners.20 During an MQM-PPP 

rapprochement in March 2011, Asif Ali Zardari, the Pakistani president and cochairman of 

the PPP, banned the PAC as a goodwill gesture toward the MQM. The PAC then voluntarily 

closed its offices in Karachi in a show of loyalty to the PPP. But the committee revived its 

activities after MQM quit the coalition government in June 2011. As a result, July and August 

were the deadliest months in Karachi’s history. The committee was officially banned in October 2011, following Mirza’s resignation from the Sindh government. 

Despite the ban, the PAC continues its criminal activities in Lyari and foments instability 

in Karachi. To counter the committee’s grip over criminal activities, the MQM has cultivated 

links with rival Lyari-based gangs, including those from the Katchi-speaking community as 

well as factions within the PAC that oppose Uzair Baloch’s leadership of the committee.21

In August 2011 Akram Baloch claimed to be Dakait’s rightful successor, a contention that 

led gang warfare to flare within Lyari. Karachi-based investigative journalists report that the 

MQM has since established links with Akram Baloch.22 Infighting between Lyari’s criminal 

gangs is thus likely to spark wider ethnic and political clashes in Karachi. In April 2012 violent 

clashes between Lyari’s gangs had a ripple effect, leading to exchanges of fire in multiethnic 

neighborhoods across Karachi.23 

Another possible outcome is that the PAC emerges as an independent actor with the power to destabilize Karachi without heeding the directives of any political party. At the end of 

April 2012 the police launched a days-long operation on the directive of the PPP-led Sindh 

government against the PAC following the murder in Lyari of a local PPP leader. Numerous 

police officials were killed and wounded during the operation and Lyari’s residents had to flee 

the battle zone.24 According to news reports, the confrontation occurred because the PAC 

decided to break with the PPP and signaled this by killing the local PPP representative.25 The 

PAC’s decision was reportedly spurred by resentment against the PPP, which has consistently 

curtailed PAC’s activities to appease its allies in the MQM.26 The newfound autonomy of 

groups such as PAC could instigate further violence for at least two reasons. First, the groups 

are likely to pursue distinct agendas and political parties will no longer enjoy control over their 

operations. Second, other political parties are likely to vie for control over the rogue groups. 

News of the PAC’s break with the PPP was quickly followed by speculations about their forming an alliance with Nawaz Sharif ’s opposition PML-N party. 

Extortion

In addition to political power and land, Karachi’s political parties have clashed over access to 

the enormous funds generated through extortion, by both political party workers and criminal gangs. According to news reports, over Rs. 12 million ($0.13 million) are collected daily 

from more than four hundred markets and shopping plazas, transporters and tankers that 

need to park in the city, small business owners, traders, factories, and the residents of illegal 

encroachments.27 Supreme Court hearings investigating the causes of violence in Karachi, 

which took place between July and October 2011, identified the city’s political parties—including the MQM, ANP, PPP, Sunni Tehrik (ST), and Jamaat-e-Islami—as the main beneficiaries of extortion rackets. Subsequently, in April 2012, Interior Minister Rehman Malik 

publicly confirmed that all major political parties in Karachi, including the MQM, PPP, and 

ANP, were running extortion rackets.28

Political parties extort money both to fund their activities and to mark their turf across the 

city. Disputes over which political party or criminal entity can collect funds from a particular 

area often spark violent clashes. The ANP, PAC, and Sindhi nationalist parties’ attempts to 
14

PEACEWORKS 82

increase their influence by extorting money from areas previously under MQM control have 

instigated violence in Karachi since 2009. The MQM also has clashed previously with the ST 

over the reach of each party’s extortion rackets. The growing competition over extorted funds 

and the increased involvement of criminal gangs in collecting these funds have led to a sharp 

rise in extortion-related violence. Between March and June 2012, twenty traders were killed for 

failing to pay extortionists, and another fifteen were abducted to facilitate payments.29

Not all extortionists resort to such violence; over the years, political parties have refined 

their extortion collection methods. Instead of brute intimidation and harassment alone, party 

workers approach businesses, traders, and transporters for charitable donations or contributions to party campaign funds. Residents of localities where the MQM or ST dominate are 

expected to donate the hides of sacrificial animals—which are sold to the tanning industry for 

a great profit—to political party workers. According to news reports, trader associations also 

have been deployed to collect money on behalf of various political stakeholders.30 These indirect methods save parties from charges of running extortion rackets. 

Karachi’s traders complain that widespread extortion poses as great a threat to their business operations as does ethnopolitical violence. All Karachi Tajir Ittehad, a coalition of more 

than three hundred market associations, organized day-long, citywide market closures to protest extortion in April 2011 and March 2012. The Small Traders Association also lobbied the 

Sindh police to establish an antiextortion cell, which comprised eight hundred newly recruited 

police officials. However, in the ten days after its launch in March 2012, the cell received only 

fifteen complaints about extortion, indicating the extent to which victims fear crossing their 

extortionists and reiterating the lack of public trust in civilian law-enforcing agencies.

Militancy 

The poor state of law and order resulting from the 2010–11 surge in ethnopolitical violence 

enabled militant groups to consolidate their presence and launch attacks in Karachi. There have 

been unconfirmed reports of the Afghan Taliban leadership relocating to the city. The TTP, 

an umbrella movement uniting militant factions in Pakistan’s northwestern tribal areas, has 

increased its fundraising and recruitment activities in the city and launched several high-profile 

attacks. Additionally, Karachi has witnessed a resurgence of militant groups with a sectarian 

agenda. The multiple and frequently intersecting strands of militancy, described in depth below, 

are potentially the most destabilizing element in Karachi’s short-term future. 

Afghan Taliban 

In recent years, the international media have pointed repeatedly to a significant Afghan Taliban 

presence in Karachi. In February 2010 Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the second-in-command 

of the Afghan Taliban, was arrested from Karachi in a joint U.S.-Pakistan operation. Baradar’s 

presence in the city has been cited since as proof of Karachi’s crucial role as an Afghan Taliban 

hideout and rehabilitation spot. In the same month, The New York Times quoted an anonymous 

diplomat in Kabul who claimed that Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Omar and his colleagues 

were based in Karachi.31 In January 2011, American newspapers reported that Mullah Omar 

was treated for a heart attack in a Karachi hospital under ISI supervision.32 However, the Pakistan army promptly denied knowledge of Omar’s whereabouts.33

Karachi-based journalists and police officials acknowledge the presence of Afghan Taliban 

commanders and fighters in the city. They explain that Taliban members seek sanctuary in 

Karachi, viewing it as a safe place to receive medical treatment and house their families. For 

this reason, too, Karachi could emerge as a flashpoint in U.S.-Pakistan relations in the run-up 

The growing competition 

over extorted funds 

and the increased 

involvement of criminal 

gangs in collecting these 

funds have led to a 

sharp rise in extortionrelated violence. 
15

CONFLICT DYNAMICS IN KARACHI

to U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2014. After the discovery of al-Qaeda chief 

Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, the further discovery of senior Afghan Taliban commanders 

in Karachi could be perceived as another sign of Pakistani duplicity or lack of commitment in 

the war against terrorism. The extent of Afghan Taliban presence in Karachi, however, remains 

unknown. According to one news report, between 7,000 and 8,000 Afghan Taliban fighters 

reside in Karachi’s Pashtun localities. However, this number includes Pakistani citizens who 

voluntarily travel to Afghanistan, often during summer months, to participate in the jihad 

against international forces.34 

Although the Afghan Taliban do not engage in terrorist activities in Karachi, their presence 

in the city could negatively affect the security situation. Police officials argue that the Afghan 

Taliban’s success in seeking sanctuary in Karachi’s endless urban sprawl inspired the TTP and 

other militant outfits to do the same.35 There are concerns that the Afghan Taliban might radicalize members of Karachi’s Afghan community. There are more than 80,000 Afghan refugees 

in Karachi, many of whom have been based there since the anti-Soviet jihad in Afghanistan in 

the 1980s. If these refugees are unhappy with the role Pakistan eventually plays in resolving the 

Afghanistan conflict, they could create havoc in the city with prodding from the Afghan Taliban. 

Senior police officials also point to the Afghan refugee community’s role in urban crime.36 

Afghans increasingly make up a disaffected and marginalized community competing with 

other groups for the city’s scant resources. Many Afghans complain of a lack of opportunity 

and development. These complaints intensified when the city government arrested and deported over 2,000 unregistered Afghan refugees between 2008 and 2010, citing security concerns. 

At the time, employers, particularly factory and industrial unit owners, were pressured not to 

hire Afghan labor. This crackdown on refugees was preemptive—they are allowed to stay in 

Pakistan until December 2012 according to an agreement between Pakistan, Afghanistan, and 

the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees—and signaled the heightening competition over urban resources. Such violations of basic rights could spark clashes or make some of 

Karachi’s Afghans more willing to participate in antistate activities.

Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP)

The growing presence of the TTP in Karachi has often been treated as a sideshow to the main 

events unfolding in FATA, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and southern Punjab. However, even as 

Pakistan witnessed a 35 percent decrease in suicide attacks between 2010 and 2011, the TTP 

waged several high-profile terrorist attacks in Karachi, indicating a significant tactical shift in 

the group’s Karachi activities.37

The TTP’s heightened activity in Karachi should be of great interest to Pakistani and 

U.S. policymakers. Terror attacks in the financial capital of Karachi could paralyze economic 

activities, undermining the national economy and, by extension, national stability. Beyond the 

economic angle, Karachi is a key node in terrorism across Pakistan because it has become the 

main location for militant recruitment, fundraising, and collaboration. The TTP’s successful 

entrenchment in Karachi will allow the group to reconsolidate after setbacks resulting from 

drone attacks in FATA and growing divisions among the militant factions that comprise the 

TTP. In other words, the growing terror threat in Karachi could herald a resurgence in terror 

attacks throughout the country. 

There have been many indications of the TTP’s consolidating its presence in Karachi 

in recent years. In November 2010 the TTP launched a suicide bomb attack at the headquarters of the CID, the police department tasked with conducting antiterrorism operations, which killed 24 people and injured 130.38 This was the first in a series of attacks that 

Karachi is a key node in 

terrorism across Pakistan 

because it has become 

the main location for 

militant recruitment, 

fundraising, and 

collaboration.
16

PEACEWORKS 82

targeted state security personnel and infrastructure in the city. In April 2011, TTP militants attacked two buses carrying navy officials, killing four people and wounding fifty-six 

in the first major attack against the armed forces in Karachi in seven years.39 The following 

month, on May 22, up to twenty militants armed with rockets, grenades, and machine guns 

laid siege to the PNS Mehran naval base for seventeen hours, killing ten security personnel 

and destroying two U.S.-manufactured P-3C Orion surveillance airplanes.40 The ten-hourlong gun battle between TTP militants and commandoes of the Pakistani Special Services 

Group in the heart of Karachi emphasized the city’s new vulnerability to terrorist attacks, 

particularly since the Pakistani Taliban had not attacked such a sensitive security installation successfully since the February 2009 assault against the Pakistan Army’s general 

headquarters in Rawalpindi. 

In a more targeted attack on September 19, a suicide bomber drove an explosives-laden 

car into the private residence of police superintendent Chaudhry Aslam Khan, the head of 

the antiterrorist CID, killing eight people.41 The attack occurred a few weeks after the TTP 

released a hit list featuring five senior Karachi police officials, including Khan, as top targets. 

Subsequently, in November, two police officers intercepted a van carrying three militants near 

the city’s Sea View beach. The militants detonated suicide jackets, killing themselves and the 

two police officials.42 Investigations showed that the TTP’s original target was a nearby Sufi 

shrine, the mausoleum of Abdullah Shah Ghazi, which had previously been attacked by two 

suicide bombers in October 2010. 

The growth of the militant threat in Karachi is evidenced by a CID crackdown in 2011, 

which led to the arrest of 222 TTP militants. The CID also successfully arrested three consecutive amirs, or chiefs, of the Pakistani Taliban in Karachi.43 Further arrests of militant commanders at the start of 2012 indicate that the TTP is relocating its leadership to Karachi 

to escape U.S. drone strikes, Pakistan army operations, and increasing volatility in Pakistan’s 

northwestern areas and tribal belt.44 Abdul Qayyum Mehsud, who was detained by Karachi 

police in January 2012 and is believed to be the citywide chief of the TTP, was previously the 

bodyguard of Baitullah Mehsud, the former leader of the Pakistani Taliban who was killed 

in a U.S. drone strike in August 2009. Abdul Mehsud was active in TTP operations against 

Pakistani security forces in the tribal belt before he relocated to Karachi.45 Similarly, Mullah 

Hakeem, who was arrested from Karachi’s Orangi township by Pakistani intelligence agents 

in February 2012, was a senior TTP commander in the northwestern Swat Valley, which fell 

under Taliban control in April 2009.46 Yasin Shah, the chief of the TTP’s Balochistan chapter, 

was also discovered and killed in Karachi during a CID raid in the city’s densely populated 

Gulshan-e-Jamal area.47

Enhanced TTP activity in Karachi signals a significant tactical shift. Previously, the TTP 

used Karachi as an organizational hub, drawing new recruits and financial resources from the 

city to fuel its operations in the tribal belt and seeking sanctuary in its endless squatter settlements.48 The TTP has long generated vital financing for its activities from Karachi through 

bank robberies. According to the Citizens-Police Liaison Committee (CPLC), a publicprivate initiative to fight urban crime, fourteen major bank heists occurred in Karachi in 2009 

and twenty in 2010. Pakistan’s Interior Ministry confirmed in a 2010 statement that 80 percent of those robberies could be traced back to individuals originating in the tribal areas and 

believed to have links with the TTP. The trend continues: Seventeen local banks were robbed 

of more than Rs. 60 million ($0.6 million) last year.49

Since 2008 the TTP has also collected funds through kidnappings for ransom. More than 

a hundred kidnappings for ransom took place in Karachi in 201050 and eighty-nine traders 
17

CONFLICT DYNAMICS IN KARACHI

and industrialists were kidnapped between January and October 2011.51 Until recently, ransom 

money was primarily collected in the northwestern city of Peshawar or in the tribal belt. But 

kidnappings are increasingly aimed at funding TTP activities within Karachi. Members of the 

CPLC and the police’s Anti-Violent Crime Cell in December 2011 conducted a raid to recover an abducted industrialist from Karachi’s Korangi township. Three members of the TTP, 

who had demanded Rs. 70 million ($0.73 million) in ransom from the industrialist’s family, 

were killed during the raid.52 Subsequent investigations revealed that one of the kidnappers, 

Qari Shahid, was involved in planning the TTP attack against the PNS Mehran naval base as 

well as the 2010 bombing of the CID office.53

In another new development, TTP militants are collaborating with criminal gangs that 

operate out of Lyari for fundraising through extortion. While most extorted funds are collected on behalf of the city’s competing political parties, an increasing share is diverted to fund 

the TTP’s militant activities, primarily as a result of agreements between militant and criminal 

groups whereby the TTP pays Karachi-based gangs to collaborate with it on a temporary basis, 

in the absence of its own grassroots networks. Recent news reports suggest that two TTPaffiliated groups, al-Mansoor and al-Mukhtar, have been tasked with fundraising in Karachi.54

Members of these groups extort wealthy businessmen, particularly those involved with trucking companies that transport NATO supplies to Afghanistan. 

To successfully conduct bank robberies and kidnappings for ransom, the TTP used to 

dispatch militants from the tribal areas to Karachi on a short-term basis. But the group’s growing involvement in extortion rackets will require an ongoing presence in the city. Some senior 

police officers argue that the TTP leadership will gradually relocate to Karachi to avoid military operations and drone attacks in FATA. The city offers militants an opportunity to remain 

active without being on the front lines of the war against terrorism; with its concentrated 

wealth, urban sprawl, and lack of law and order, Karachi also offers greater opportunities for 

fundraising and recruitment. 

Karachi’s political landscape has not been immune to the TTP’s recent rise. The MQM 

has repeatedly warned against the growing Taliban threat. However, given the city’s charged 

ethnopolitical context, the party’s warnings have been dismissed as anti-Pashtun propaganda. Since most Taliban militants are ethnic Pashtun and tend to seek sanctuary in Pashtundominated areas, the MQM’s anti-TTP rhetoric is perceived as a way to justify infiltration of 

rival ethnic areas. The PPP, meanwhile, has downplayed the Taliban threat in Karachi, with 

Interior Minister Malik repeatedly blaming foreign actors for terrorist attacks.55 This too is politically motivated: Given the alliance between the PPP and the ANP at the federal level and in 

Karachi, the PPP is reluctant to alienate the ANP by drawing attention to militant presence 

in ANP constituencies or calling for security operations that would primarily target Pashtun 

neighborhoods. 

Sectarian Violence

Karachi has witnessed a surge in sectarian violence since 2009. Sixty-four sectarian attacks 

took place between January and November 2011, up from fifty-one in 2010.56 Sectarian 

violence occurs between extremist Sunni Muslim organizations—primarily the Ahl-eSunnat Wal Jammat (ASWJ), which was known as the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) 

until that organization was banned in 2002; its militant wing, the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LJ); 

and Jundullah—and extremist Shia Muslim groups such as the Sipah-e-Muhammad Pakistan (SMP). Clashes between the Deobandi and Barelvi sects of Sunni Islam are also on 

the rise. A 2010 CID report stated that more than half of the 246 terrorists arrested in 
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PEACEWORKS 82

Karachi between 2001 and 2010 were affiliated with sectarian outfits.57 Speaking off the 

record, CID officials say sectarian violence is likely to increase in Karachi, and could further 

destabilize the city’s security situation. 

Karachi has a long history of sectarian violence, particularly Sunni-Shia clashes in the 

1990s. However, sustained police crackdowns on banned sectarian groups reduced this kind 

of violence in the last decade. In April 2009 the SMP, having established a base in the 

northwestern Kurram Agency, regrouped in Karachi with the aim of protecting Pakistan’s 

Shia community from extremist Sunni militant groups and defending broader Shia interests 

in the region.58

In Karachi, the SMP targeted sympathizers and members of the ASWJ/SSP and LJ, resulting in the anti-Shia LJ strengthening its presence in the city. This process was fueled by 

the release from jail in 2009 of Naeem Bukhari, a hardline LJ militant who had been arrested 

in Karachi in 2007 in connection with the murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl, who 

was killed in the city in 2002. On his release, Bukhari traveled to the tribal belt, where he 

developed ties between LJ and the TTP before returning to Karachi to pursue a sectarian 

agenda. The reconsolidation in Karachi of the LJ and other sectarian groups was marked by 

attacks against Shia religious processions in December 2009 and February 2010. The ASWJ/

SSP, along with the LJ and the SMP, then engaged in tit-for-tat sectarian killings throughout 

2010 and 2011. In 2011 thirty ASWJ/SSP activists were murdered in target killings between 

March and December.59 According to official police records, thirteen Shias were also killed 

in the city in 2011; the Jaffria Alliance, which maintains a record of Shias killed on sectarian 

grounds, claims the number is twice as high.60 

Karachi’s recent history of sectarian violence demonstrates how militant developments 

elsewhere in the country affect the city, as in the SMP’s consolidation in Kurram and growing 

TTP-LJ links in FATA. Militant activities in Karachi, which both influence and are influenced 

by nationwide trends, provide a useful snapshot of the security situation across Pakistan, making the city a microcosm of the country. 

In addition to the SMP, the ASWJ/SSP, whose members hail from the Deobandi sect of 

Sunni Islam, is also embroiled in an ideological and turf war with Barelvi Sunnis, primarily 

represented by the Sunni Tehrik (ST), the largest and most organized among 4,000 Sunni 

Barelvi organizations in Karachi, many of which operate within a single neighborhood. The 

ST’s militant wing retaliates against sectarian attacks launched by groups such as the ASWJ/

SSP but is focused on gaining control of the mosques of rival sects through land acquisition. 

The clashes between Deobandis and Barelvis in Karachi are less about ideology and more 

about the city’s limited land and financial resources and political power. In 2011 seventeen 

people were killed and twelve injured as a result of ASWJ/SSP-ST fighting.61

According to the CID, various Karachi-based sectarian outfits have formed links with the 

TTP after seeking logistical support, training, and sanctuary in Pakistan’s tribal belt.62 These 

ties will spur sectarian violence in Karachi as the broad militant networks and improved resources that a TTP affiliation entails strengthen the competing groups. More important, the 

new networks could portend an increase in overall militancy in Karachi as banned groups step 

beyond their sectarian mandates to aid the TTP’s antistate agenda. After training alongside 

al-Qaeda activists in Pakistan’s tribal belt, LJ activists participated in the October 2009 attack against the Pakistan army headquarters in Rawalpindi. Similarly, police accused anti-Shia 

group Jundullah, believed to be responsible for the December 2009 blast at the Shia procession in Karachi, of setting off four consecutive blasts across the city in November 2011, one of 

which killed four Rangers personnel. 

Various Karachi-based 

sectarian outfits have 

formed links with the TTP 

after seeking logistical 

support, training, and 

sanctuary in Pakistan’s 

tribal belt.
19

CONFLICT DYNAMICS IN KARACHI

Sectarian clashes also could spark citywide ethnopolitical violence. As groups such as the 

ASWJ/SSP and ST vie for control of Karachi’s mosques, adjoining land, and funds collected 

under the pretense of charitable donations, they inevitably clash with political parties seeking 

territorial control of urban constituencies. The MQM and ST in particular have historically engaged in turf wars in Karachi, primarily because many ST recruits previously had been MQM 

activists and thus felt entitled to control the same resources. Sectarian violence can also be used 

more directly to trigger ethnopolitical violence, whether with the aim of destabilizing the city or 

distracting attention from the actual culprits. In August 2010 an LJ militant assassinated Raza 

Haider, a prominent leader of the MQM and a Shia. In keeping with the pattern of ethnopolitical violence in Karachi, Haider’s death sparked a spree of target killings, which left fifty-three 

people, primarily Pashtuns, dead over the course of three days.63 The violence only subsided when 

the MQM conceded that there may have been a sectarian angle to Haider being targeted.

Splinter Groups and Freelance Militants 

The CID and intelligence agency crackdown against the TTP in 2010 and 2011 has led to 

a new phenomenon in militant organization. Radicalized militants now operate in smaller 

splinter groups—only three militants carried out the attack against the CID offices in 2010—

to effectively evade law enforcement agencies. The groups organize at the grassroots level and 

then seek ties to the TTP or other banned extremist and sectarian groups, or are constituted 

by the TTP to carry out specific operations. The fluid and operation-specific nature of these 

groups mean that they operate under different titles that change frequently: Jundullah, Badar 

Mansoor Group, al-Furqan, al-Qataal, Kharooj, and Punjabi Taliban are among the groups 

that the CID has identified. This decentralized model has fostered increased collaboration and 

coalition building across militant groups; it has also made it much more difficult for the CID 

or other security officials to trace militants operating in Karachi. 

The proliferation of splinter groups in Karachi is fueled by a growing culture of freelance 

militancy. The CID estimates that thousands of radicalized militants who fought in Afghanistan either during the 1980s or since 2001 now reside in the city. These militants maintain 

contact through Karachi’s extensive seminary network and can be called upon to participate 

occasionally in different operations. As a result, Karachi-based militants today take orders from 

multiple militant groups, both major and obscure. This freelance model has made it increasingly difficult for law enforcement agencies to track militancy in the city. 

Significantly, as a result of the splinter and freelance model, TTP-affiliated militants 

are no longer exclusively ethnic Pashtun. According to the CID, Urdu-speaking and Punjabi residents of Karachi are increasingly collaborating with the TTP.64 The socioeconomic 

profile of Karachi’s militants also varies: Although the majority of militants reside in the 

low-income, Pashtun-dominated squatter settlements at the city’s periphery, a growing 

number hail from educated, middle-class backgrounds. The Karachi faction of the Punjabi 

Taliban comprises several students enrolled at the University of Karachi, Pakistan’s largest 

public sector university.65 These students were previously affiliated with the student wing 

of the Jamaat-e-Islami, a religious political party. Kharooj, another splinter militant group, 

also recruits students. The diversifying profile of militants can be explained by soaring anti-Americanism and mainstream resentment against U.S. troop presence in Afghanistan. 

Well-funded militant groups have used sophisticated websites, social media outlets such as 

YouTube and Facebook, and other communications strategies to reach out to middle-class 

recruits and exploit their resentment against the West. As such, Karachi’s changing militant 

demographic could foreshadow future trends across Pakistan. 
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PEACEWORKS 82

The Broader Context of Karachi Violence 

The political, ethnic, sectarian, and militant factors that cause violence in Karachi have 

unique dynamics and triggers and are ever-evolving. But underlying systemic issues drive 

and exacerbate each of these factors and perpetuate cycles of violence. The consistent failure 

to acknowledge and address these systemic issues has prevented other, more superficial initiatives at restoring peace in Karachi from being successful. This report therefore highlights 

the major systemic causes of violence in the city, including inadequate urban planning, demographic pressures, poor policing, and ineffective criminal prosecution owing to a weak 

judicial system. 

Certainly the systemic failures are not unique to Karachi, or even to Pakistani cities, but 

they are worth highlighting here. As demonstrated above, broader socioeconomic factors and 

land use trends are the true drivers of Karachi’s violence, but policymakers seeking to interrupt 

cycles of urban violence consistently neglect them. The prevalence of these social, economic, 

and judicial challenges threatens to replicate Karachi’s poor security environment in other rapidly expanding cities. Only by emphasizing the connection between systemic issues and urban 

violence can Pakistani policymakers hope to heed the warning signs of Karachi. The systemic 

issues perpetuate violent politics, making cities with Karachi’s planning and policy problems 

more vulnerable to multifaceted violence. In places where the state abdicates all responsibilities for services, utilities, and security provision, political parties cease to offer representation 

and instead provide an essential form of protection under the guise of ad hoc service delivery. 

In these situations, urban residents cannot hope for access to urban resources or advancement without participating in coercive politics. As such, Karachi’s current predicament offers 

a glimpse of the long-term security implications of failing to improve urban planning and 

governance in other parts of Pakistan. 

Of particular interest to policymakers is that Karachi’s size, extensive seminary network, 

and chronic lack of governance and law enforcement makes it an ideal hideout for Pakistan’s 

militants. More worryingly, urban trends toward marginalization—not only along ethnic lines 

but also in terms of employment and opportunity—make Karachi a prime recruiting ground 

for militant and other extremist organizations. As mentioned above, Karachi’s educated, 

middle-class residents are increasingly being enticed by sectarian groups and the TTP. This is 

not only for ideological reasons, but also because in a violent and competitive city, affiliations 

with groups—whether the armed wings of political parties, militants, or sectarian groups—

provide much-needed protection. 

Land

The struggle to gain access to poorly developed land resources arguably predominates among 

the underlying causes of Karachi’s political and ethnic violence. It also allows militancy to 

flourish, as militants evade civilian law enforcement in the city’s endless squatter settlements. 

Karachi’s violence is thus intrinsically connected to failures in urban planning, equitable land 

use, and resource allocation. Since the influx of migrants to Karachi during the partition of 

the Indian subcontinent in 1947, communities have resorted to violence as a way to resist the 

state’s attempts to manage land through arbitrary regularization and forced evictions. Since 

the 1980s political parties have maintained ties with the ubiquitous land mafia because the 

ballots of slum dwellers are most easily secured with the promise of housing, utilities, and infrastructure, such as roads in illegal developments. Understanding and addressing the violent 

turf wars that poor urban planning sparks is essential, especially as Pakistan is now the fastest 

urbanizing country in South Asia. 
21

CONFLICT DYNAMICS IN KARACHI

Population Explosion

Standing at roughly 18 million, Karachi’s population has grown by more than twenty-five 

times since Partition. Between 1941 and 1961, Karachi’s population grew by 432 percent, a rate 

of growth “no other city anywhere else in the world at any time in human history has ever experienced.”66 Today, the city continues to grow at an annual rate of 5.4 percent, making it one 

of the fastest growing cities of the world.67 Each year, an estimated 1 million people from the 

rural parts of Pakistan migrate to Karachi and take up residence in unplanned slums, which are 

growing at a rate of 100,000 plots annually.68 Low-income housing and slums have encroached 

on over 8,000 acres of land allocated for amenity plots and parks between 1986 and 2007 as the 

growing population demands accommodation.69

Poor Urban Planning

Since the 1950s Karachi has been plagued by poor planning that has led to urban sprawl 

and ghettoization. Most damaging, in 1958 the Greater Karachi Resettlement Plan aimed 

at relocating the city’s migrant and working class population along an urban periphery away 

from the city center and called for the development of two satellite towns twenty-five kilometers to the north and east of the city. The relocation of the inner-city population to the 

periphery transformed Karachi into an area of low-density sprawl.70 Squatter settlements 

erupted in the corridors between these distinct areas of the city and have come to define the 

city’s urban character. 

Lack of Government Oversight and a Multiplicity of Claimants

The proliferation of slums and land encroachments in Karachi is exacerbated by the fact that 

the city’s development falls to more than twenty federal and provincial government agencies, city authorities, port authorities, military cantonment boards, and private-sector developers. These entities manage overlapping territories and powers, vie for control of lucrative 

planning projects, and operate independently of one another without guidance from a centralized metropolitan authority. This multiplicity of ownership breeds irregularities. Private developers and land mafias working on behalf of political parties acquire land through corruption, 

bribe officials to tamper with land records, and pit agencies against each other to ensure that 

amenity plots are converted and commercialized. 

Increased Pace of Land Acquisition and Regularization

After 2001 the pace of land acquisition and regularization of existing settlements by the government significantly increased. The consolidation of municipal control through the creation of 

the City District Government Karachi in 2001 spurred this trend, as the new government tried 

to bring as much land as possible under its direct jurisdiction. The government also launched 

huge infrastructure projects that further stressed Karachi’s land resources. The construction of 

the Lyari Expressway, a highway connecting Karachi Port with the Super Highway, which 

runs upcountry, led to the destruction of 20,000 homes in irregular settlements, displacing up 

to 250,000 people and creating a higher citywide demand for low-income housing.71

Private Sector Development

Private developers also spurred land acquisition as they sought to benefit from a greater domestic demand for housing. This demand resulted from a sustained period of economic growth 

in the 2000s and increased availability of cash supplies thanks to new consumer banking and 

leasing programs.72 Private developers also began speculating in Karachi property as Pakistan 
22

PEACEWORKS 82

became integrated with the global real estate market, creating even greater demand for housing projects. The decade-long land acquisition drive put pressure on the city’s existing squatter 

settlements and led to the inclusion of outlying areas, such as Sindhi villages near the Northern 

Bypass, in the municipal jurisdiction. 

The crowding of Karachi’s existing slums coupled with waves of Pashtun and Sindhi migration to Karachi after 2008 has provoked intense fighting over land between ethnic groups 

and the political parties that represent them. In recent years, parties such as the ANP and PPP 

increasingly have become involved in the politics and forceful acquisition of irregular settlements across the city. In the absence of legal land allocation and robust city administration, 

there are few effective formal means of obtaining land in Karachi. Political parties have stepped 

into the administrative vacuum and now participate in forceful land acquisition or regularization to attract new supporters. 

Lack of Law Enforcement 

In many ways tied to Karachi’s flawed urban planning, consistent failures in law enforcement 

lead to the unchecked spread of ethnopolitical, sectarian, and militant violence in Karachi. 

Most problems stem from the police department being chronically understaffed: 32,524 police officers are available to police the city of more than 18 million.73 Of these, approximately 

12,000 officers are deployed on special security duties, including 8,000 officers tasked with 

protecting important persons and government officials. The 20,000 officers left to police the 

city—one police officer for every 900 people—are inadequate to enforce law and order. The 

acute human resource shortage has depleted public trust in the police: As the abovementioned 

example of the new antiextortion cell shows, there is a very low incidence of crime reporting, 

meaning that an accurate snapshot of Karachi’s security situation is unavailable. 

The police force is further compromised because it is highly politicized. According to the 

inspector general (IG) of the Sindh police, more than 40 percent of Karachi’s police force has 

been recruited on political grounds. Political appointees fail to take action against land mafias, 

extortionists, target killers, and criminals operating on behalf of their patron political parties. 

The politicization of Karachi’s police force escalated after the Sindh government repealed the 

Police Order 2002. Under it, the provincial police officer (PPO) had the power to appoint 

and transfer all police officers in the province. Since its repeal, the Sindh IG can only exert his 

influence up to the level of deputy superintendent of police. The provincial government must 

authorize appointments to positions higher than that. Since police appointees offer protection 

for the illegal activities of political parties that secured their posts, parties in the provincial 

government have used their powers to make Karachi’s police force pliant and ineffective. The 

fallout of a politicized police force was evident in the immediate wake of a security crackdown 

against target killers between July and September 2011: Although 291 suspects were arrested 

and accused under the Anti-Terrorism Act, the police submitted only 130 charge sheets against 

suspects to the courts because many suspects with political connections were released on bail.74

Police officers are also reluctant to crack down against criminals and armed party activists who participate in ethnopolitical clashes because they fear the repercussions. Since 1992, 

ninety-two of the police officers involved in Operation Clean-Up, the security initiative aimed 

at cleansing Karachi of MQM militias, have been abducted or killed. The police force’s basic 

inability to protect itself has also made it redundant to maintaining the city’s security. 

Since the 1990s Karachiites have relied on the paramilitary Rangers force, which is headed 

by a serving major general and partially manned by Pakistan army soldiers, to reduce ethnopolitical violence and restore law and order after prolonged bouts of target killings. At times 

The 20,000 officers 

left to police the city—

one police officer for 

every 900 people—are 

inadequate to enforce 

law and order. 
23

CONFLICT DYNAMICS IN KARACHI

of heightened violence, the government empowers the Rangers with special policing powers, 

including the power to conduct searches and make arrests without a warrant, cordon off areas, 

seize any property that could be used to commit a criminal offense (e.g., weapons, explosives, 

firearms), and retaliate against attacks. Approximately 7,000 Rangers are stationed in Karachi, 

and up to 4,000 were deployed throughout the city in August 2011 to arrest target killers, carry 

out surgical strikes in no-go zones, and disrupt the two-year cycle of ethnopolitical violence. 

Although effective in terms of restoring law and order, the Rangers do not offer a permanent solution to Karachi’s security problems. The multiple and intersecting causes of violence 

in Karachi require regular policing informed by hyper-local knowledge of communities and 

their dynamics. Such grassroots law enforcement can only be provided by a well-staffed, welltrained, well-equipped, and transparently appointed police force. 

Weak Judicial System

Poor law enforcement is compounded by the failings of the criminal justice system. Of 

the more than two hundred suspected target killers Rangers personnel arrested during surgical operations in August and September 2011, not one has been successfully 

prosecuted. Some of the most prominent criminals involved in recent Karachi violence had been acquitted previously by district-level or parallel antiterrorism courts 

(ATCs). In June 2011 a Karachi court acquitted Ajmal Pahari, a notorious criminal accused of committing more than a hundred murders and running extortion rackets on 

behalf of a political party, owing to insufficient evidence.75 The case against Pahari fell 

apart when none of the witnesses to a murder he committed appeared in court to testify. Pahari had also been arrested in 1997 on charges of killing four Americans, but 

an ATC eventually acquitted him. Pahari’s acquittals point to significant flaws in the 

judicial system—some of which are listed below—that prevent the successful prosecutions 

of gang members and target killers that are required to stabilize Karachi in the long term. 

Lack of a Witness Protection Program

Most criminals accused in the ATCs are acquitted because complainants and witnesses refuse 

to testify for fear of retaliatory action by the suspect’s criminal gang or militant organization. 

The lack of a comprehensive and effective witness protection program is the primary reason 

that suspected target killers and terrorists are not successfully prosecuted. The Sindh Home 

Department in January 2012 submitted a proposal to the provincial cabinet to establish a 

Witness Protection Unit, but steps to establish it have not yet been taken. Separately, personal 

security concerns on the part of judges, state prosecutors, and defense counsels frequently lead 

to the postponement of hearings. No measures to improve security for ATC personnel have 

been proposed or implemented. 

Backlog of Cases

The variety of cases covered by the Anti-Terrorism Act—including terrorist attacks, murder, 

extortion, arms trafficking, kidnapping, hijacking, sectarian violence, and target political killings—contributes to the chronic backlog of cases at ATCs. At the start of 2012 more than 320 

cases were pending in Karachi’s three antiterrorism courts.76 Over 100 of these were pending 

because of delays in repairing the roof of a courtroom in Karachi Central Prison; for security 

reasons, sensitive antiterrorism cases are heard within the prison premises.77 Some cases have 

been awaiting hearings for over eight years. The backlog persists because ATCs are chronically understaffed, as described below. But cases are also disposed slowly because of significant 

Most criminals are acquitted 

because complainants 

and witnesses refuse to 

testify for fear of retaliatory 

action by the suspect’s 

criminal gang or militant 

organization. 
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PEACEWORKS 82

delays in the submission by law enforcement authorities of charge sheets against suspects. 

Frequent adjournments are also granted to both defense and prosecution counsels. 

Flawed Judicial Appointments

ATCs are chronically understaffed owing to delays and flaws in judicial appointments. In 2010 

the post of the judge for one ATC in Karachi lay vacant for more than six months. Public 

prosecutors, too, are hired after significant delays. Despite ongoing vacancies, the majority of 

prosecutors currently working in Karachi’s ATCs have been hired on a contractual basis. The 

temporary nature of prosecutors’ employment prevents their involvement in cases from start to 

finish and offers no incentives for performing at a high standard. Many prosecutors are hired 

on a political basis to guarantee acquittals or short sentences for criminals with political connections. This politicization is exacerbated by administrative flaws: Although ATCs and the 

public prosecutors that work within them function under the administrative control of the 

Sindh Criminal Prosecution Department, salaries are drawn from the Sindh Home Department. This means that the Sindh provincial government can influence appointments and offer 

incentives and benefits to certain prosecutors, further politicizing the system. 

Faulty Evidence Gathering

The ATCs’ ability to deliver prosecutions is also compromised by errors, omissions, and delays 

during the registration of cases and the police investigation process. Incomplete information 

on the first information report (FIR); delays in putting together a police line-up; eyewitnesses 

failing to identify the accused; unsatisfactory, discrepant, or tampered evidence; improper recording of confessions; improper recording of witness statements; and compromised medical 

or forensic evidence are common reasons for criminals, target killers, and suspected terrorists being acquitted. Moreover, since most of the accused confess to their crimes after being 

subjected to improper interrogation techniques or torture, their statements are inadmissible 

in the courts. 

Inadequate Resources

State prosecutors work in the poorest conditions. They frequently have no offices, stationery, 

legal resources such as an archive of judgments, or clerical staff, let alone adequate security 

provisions. In 2011 most ATC judges and prosecutors received their salaries after two- or 

three-month-long delays. The lack of basic resources prevents ATCs from delivering prompt 

and effective justice.

Flawed Antiterror Legislation

The Anti-Terrorism Act 1997 is deeply flawed. In the present security context, its major shortcoming is that it does not specifically address terrorism-related offenses, such as suicide bombings. Moreover, the act does not apply to residents of FATA, who instead have to face justice 

under the Frontier Crimes Regulation, even if they are apprehended in Karachi. Additionally, 

the act facilitates human rights violations: ATCs place strict time limits on the investigation process, which makes investigating officials more prone to falsifying evidence and using 

coercive methods with suspects. A 2009 amendment to the act permits “extrajudicial confessions” to be used as evidence and has been critiqued by human rights groups for encouraging 

torture.78 The act also stifles due process because terrorism suspects are denied the right to be 

tried in a public place, with a full defense, as well as the right to be presumed innocent until 

proven otherwise. 
25

CONFLICT DYNAMICS IN KARACHI

Madrassahs and Extremism 

Across Pakistan, certain madrassahs spread religious extremism and intensify sectarian differences. In Karachi, home to Pakistan’s largest and most dense madrassah network, they also fuel turf 

wars and ethnic stratification. There is no agreement about the number of madrassahs in the city: 

Government statistics suggest that there are more than 1,000 but civil society organizations estimate the total to be over 3,000.79 The madrassah network in Karachi has mushroomed in recent 

years, indicating the rising numbers of impoverished, young Karachiites and the acute shortage of 

enrollment opportunities in secular government or private schools. Many studies have cautioned 

against equating religious school enrollment with extremism, especially as madrassahs comprise 

only 1 percent of the full-time education market in Pakistan.80 However, in Karachi’s case, the 

madrassah network’s historic use by militant groups for recruitment purposes and its role in the 

city’s violence dynamics makes it worth highlighting. 

Karachi’s major madrassahs have been key to incubating various extremist organizations. 

The Jamia Uloom Islamia in Binori Town has long supplied Deobandi militants to various 

jihadi organizations and helped establish groups such as the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen and the 

Jaish-e-Mohammad. Presently, madrassahs continue to disseminate sectarian and extremist 

ideologies through unreformed curricula. Moreover, they house members of banned militant 

groups and give them opportunities to generate funds, approach potential recruits, and expand their network of freelance militants. Madrassahs are particularly important for militant 

fundraising because there is no monitoring of the funds that flow through religious schools 

and many resources are documented as charitable donations. Madrassahs also offer facilities 

to produce and distribute jihadi and sectarian publications, CDs, DVDs, and other material. 

As such, they are largely responsible for the spread of extremist ideologies across the city, 

including, as mentioned above, among university students. 

The mushrooming madrassah network also fuels turf wars in Karachi. According to the 

land and revenue department, no land was allotted to construct new madrassahs between 1992 

and 2007. However, this period witnessed a proliferation of madrassahs across Karachi, all of 

which were illegally raised. Building a mosque, which is frequently accompanied by a madrassah, is one of the easiest ways to occupy state land because only the state has the power to 

demolish it, and even then only after seeking the consent of religious authorities. In this way, 

extremist groups have been able to gain control of some of the most coveted properties in Karachi, including public parks and government amenity plots. 

The rush to build madrassahs also has increased the incidence of sectarian clashes and extortion rackets linked to religious political parties and extremist groups. Different sects view madrassahs as platforms to attract new recruits, and therefore compete, often violently, over resources to 

build and sustain madrassahs as well as over land on which to house them. Many intrasectarian 

SSP-ST clashes in Karachi have been over control of mosques and affiliated madrassahs. 

Madrassahs likewise add to the city’s ethnopolitical tensions. As most madrassah students 

hail from Pashto-speaking households with ties to FATA, KP, Afghanistan, and the Northern 

Areas, they contribute to the city’s ethnic stratification. Moreover, religious political parties enjoy 

street power by virtue of being able to mobilize Karachi’s thousands of madrassah students. For 

the moment, the city’s politics are dominated by the MQM, ANP, and PPP. But religious political parties could upset this tripartite dynamic, sparking further political violence. 

Urban Demographics

Despite Karachi’s multifaceted violence and the pervasiveness of the systemic issues described above, the city remains Pakistan’s most developed, prosperous, and literate. According 
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PEACEWORKS 82

to the Social Policy and Development Center, Karachi’s human development index in 2005 

was 0.7885 with an annual 2.7 percent positive rate of change, compared to 0.539 for the rest 

of Pakistan.81 According to the 1998 census, the city’s literacy rate was 67.42 percent, higher 

than the national average of 49.9 percent.82 Current studies indicate that the literacy rate in 

Karachi’s central business district is as high as 90 percent.83 These indicators are threatened 

by the following demographic trends, which currently drive ethnopolitical violence and are 

likely to exacerbate the abovementioned systemic issues. The failure to create and implement 

policies to accommodate for these changes augurs a violent future for the city. 

Youth Bulge

Almost 60 percent of Pakistan’s overall population is under the age of thirty. This youth bulge is 

equally evident in Karachi. Devoid of education, employment, and entertainment, young Karachiites are prime targets for recruitment by the armed wings of political parties, criminal gangs, 

and militant organizations. According to the CPLC, most petty crimes such as car and cellphone 

theft are committed by people between sixteen and twenty-one, many of whom are school dropouts.84 And as described, militant organizations with ties to the TTP are increasingly recruiting 

students enrolled at the city’s major universities, but who lack other advancement opportunities. 

Unemployment

Although the national unemployment rate in 2009 was 14.4 percent, the unemployment rate 

in Karachi was 17.56 percent.85 The ongoing migration of low-skill labor from Pakistan’s rural 

areas results in higher levels of urban joblessness. About 75 percent of Karachi’s residents work 

in the informal sector, and up to 3 million people are daily wage earners; in the main industrial 

hub of the Sindh Industrial Trading Estate (SITE), up to 70 percent of all workers subsist 

on daily wages.86 According to the city government, Karachi’s labor participation rate is 39 

percent.87 Owing to the high rates of unemployment and daily wage earning, more than 50 

percent of the city’s population lives below the poverty line. Daily wage earners in particular are 

affected by the frequent closure of Karachi’s markets as a result of violent clashes. 

Unemployment also has an ethnic dimension. In recent years, employers have been more 

inclined to hire workers from the same ethnic background to avoid tensions at the workplace. 

This practice, referred to as targeted unemployment, has forced many Pashtuns out of jobs, as 

most employers hail from Urdu-speaking or Punjabi backgrounds. 

Socioeconomic Disparities

A significant wealth gap exists between Karachi’s most affluent residents and its low-income or daily 

wage earners. The disparities among social classes have led to a surge in petty crime and armed robberies. It has also fueled ethnic hatred, as class divides broadly map onto ethnic groups as well. Urduspeaking mohajirs and Punjabis are among the more affluent groups in the city, while Pashtuns and 

Baloch are among the poorest. That said, some members of the Karachi-based Pashtun community 

involved in the private transport sector have greatly profited from transporting NATO supplies from 

Karachi to Afghanistan since 2001. Their new wealth partly explains the increasing influence of the 

ANP. Still, Pashtun settlements remain significantly underdeveloped and socioeconomic disparities 

emphasize the perception that certain ethnic communities are ghettoized in Karachi. 

Lack of Political Representation

Mohajirs account for 48 percent of Karachi’s population while Pashtuns account for 22 

percent. Yet the mohajir MQM holds fifty-one seats in the Sindh National Assembly—

Devoid of education, 

employment, and 

entertainment, young 

Karachiites are prime 

targets for recruitment 

by the armed wings of 

political parties, criminal 

gangs, and militant 

organizations.
27

CONFLICT DYNAMICS IN KARACHI

thirty-four from Karachi—while the Pashtun ANP holds two. Sindhis are a marginal, albeit 

growing, ethnic group within the city, but the PPP holds six provincial assembly seats from 

Karachi. The lack of proportional political representation for Karachi’s various ethnic groups, 

particularly Pashtuns, has resulted in unequal government spending on development and 

service delivery. 

The power of Karachi’s political parties becomes easier to understand in light of demographic trends. Political patronage is a significant advantage in the fierce competition for urban 

resources (land and municipal services), social advancement, and employment opportunities. 

As ethnopolitical tensions flare, affiliations with Karachi’s political parties also offer security. 

Without addressing demographic challenges and improving social indicators, there is little 

hope of resolving the city’s violent politics. 

Antiviolence Initiatives 

The resurgence in ethnopolitical, sectarian, and militant violence in Karachi has prompted 

government officials—at both the provincial and federal level—political party leaders, and civil 

society to propose solutions to stem the violence and prevent future clashes. 

Empowering the Rangers

As described above, the government and political parties call on the paramilitary Rangers 

to restore law and order when the security situation in Karachi spirals out of control. Noting that their efforts only produce temporary results, the director-general of the Rangers in 

September 2011 called for their special policing powers to be made permanent. The 

government declined to do this, saying the move would go against the constitution. The government did, however, reserve the right to grant the Rangers special powers for ninety-day 

stretches whenever needed.

Deweaponization of Karachi

Acknowledging that the easy availability of weapons fuels violent clashes in Karachi, civil society actors, the representatives of all major political parties, and Pakistan’s Interior Minister 

Rehman Malik have called repeatedly for the deweaponization of Karachi since 2009. In January 2011 the MQM submitted a deweaponization bill before the National Assembly, which 

was accepted for review by a standing committee. The bill calls for a countrywide ban on the 

manufacturing, possession, and illegal use of weapons. However, it was largely perceived to be 

an attempt at political point scoring. Deweaponization campaigns were launched in Pakistan 

in 2001, 2005, and 2007, but there have been no serious efforts to confiscate illegal weapons 

or discourage manufacturing. The lack of seriousness regarding the deweaponization bill was 

demonstrated by Interior Minister Malik, who publicly supported the MQM bill but then 

launched an initiative to counter its basic goals: In the summer of 2011 Malik declared that 

Karachi’s traders should receive arms licenses quickly and without any hassle to enable them 

to protect themselves from extortionists. Between July 2011 and January 2012, 16,631 arms 

licenses were issued in Karachi.88

Digitization of Arms Licenses

In November 2011 Karachi’s city government launched the Computerized Arms License 

Management System, which aimed to create a digital record of all arms licenses issued in 

the city and to link arms licenses with citizens’ official biodata records. Government officials 
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PEACEWORKS 82

argued that such a system would make it easier to monitor the misuse of arms and thereby 

stem violence. However, a month after the system was launched, Karachi’s local government 

system changed from a decentralized city government system to its commissioner system. All 

arms license records were transferred to the commissioner’s office and the program had yet to 

be reinitiated in March 2012.

Special Parliamentary Committee

In August 2011 the speaker of the National Assembly constituted a special, multiparty, seventeen-member committee to review the law and order situation in Karachi as well as security issues in Balochistan. The special committee was directed to share its findings with the assembly 

within two months. However, the committee was unable to organize timely visits to Karachi 

and failed to reach consensus on how to monitor the implementation of the Supreme Court’s 

recommendations for controlling Karachi’s violence. The inefficacy of parliamentary committees in tackling Karachi’s violence had been demonstrated the previous year by the National 

Assembly’s Standing Committee on the Interior: Committee members took note of escalating 

violence in Karachi as early as August 2010, but their probes and investigations in the latter 

half of 2010 did not yield any political or policy-oriented solutions to the violence.

Police Recruitment

Government officials and Supreme Court judges who presided over hearings on Karachi’s 

violence have called for the police force to be depoliticized and revamped.89 In particular, the 

urgent need to recruit more trained officers has been emphasized. In March 2012 new recruits 

were sought to man antiextortion cells that the police force aimed to set up in each of Karachi’s 

five administrative districts. However, no budgetary allocation has been made to allow the 

police force to significantly increase its ranks. 

Banning Groups

In March 2012 the government banned the anti-Shia ASWJ in an effort to curtail sectarian 

violence. In October 2011 it banned the PAC. During the height of ethnopolitical violence in 

August 2011, the Supreme Court even considered a petition to ban the MQM, but declined 

to implement such a drastic move. Although the banning of groups conveys a strong political 

message, it does not affect levels of violence, especially as most groups reconstitute under a new 

name. The ASWJ, under its former name Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, was itself banned by General Musharraf in 2002. That ban proved ineffective, however, as no sustained effort was made 

to dismantle the group’s infrastructure, prosecute its activists, or cut off its sources of funding. 

Bounty

In April 2012 the Sindh police asked the provincial government to announce a bounty on 

thirty-five criminals, including the leadership of the outlawed PAC. This measure was widely 

understood to be symbolic since the whereabouts of the named criminals were known and 

many maintain close ties to politicians and police officers.

Inadequate Interventions 

In October 2011, after two years of escalating ethnopolitical violence in which up to 3,000 

people were killed, Pakistan’s Supreme Court intervened in an effort to restore law and order. 
29

CONFLICT DYNAMICS IN KARACHI

The Supreme Court’s investigations, security recommendations, and scathing critique of political party involvement in Karachi’s violence did not help allay the problem. After a brief lull 

in violence at the end of 2011, more than 740 people were killed in the first five months of 

2012. This section of the report examines the mechanisms that were used in 2011 to disrupt 

cycles of violence and their effectiveness. 

Supreme Court Suo Moto Hearings

In July 2011 the Supreme Court took suo moto notice of the violence in Karachi and held 

ten hearings to investigate the causes and perpetrators of violence in the city. A five-member 

Special Bench directed joint investigation teams of intelligence agents from the ISI and other 

agencies to submit reports on likely perpetrators. The bench also interrogated the attorney 

general of Pakistan, the inspector general of Sindh Police, and the provincial chief secretary. 

On October 6 the Supreme Court issued its verdict, in which it clearly identified political 

parties as the main perpetrators of urban violence, going as far as to identify target killers and 

extortionists with political backing. The court also spoke against the politicization of the police 

force and directed the Sindh Police and Rangers to eradicate all no-go zones in the city. The 

Special Bench also identified failings in the ATC system and called for judges and public prosecutors to be appointed promptly and permanently. The Supreme Court’s explicit naming of 

all the political parties involved in Karachi violence helped spur a political consensus to reduce 

ethnopolitical violence, as none of the parties wanted to be subject to further hearings in the 

run-up to general elections. 

Political Consensus on Rangers Operations

In August and September 2011, paramilitary Rangers forces empowered with special policing powers conducted 985 strategic operations and raids in 30 areas, arresting 236 people 

suspected of involvement in Karachi’s ethnopolitical and sectarian violence. The Rangers met 

with no armed resistance during search operations because Karachi’s major political parties 

agreed to allow the Rangers to operate without political pressure or resistance. In this decision, 

the political parties were responding to the Supreme Court order for Rangers and the Sindh 

Police to eliminate all no-go zones and to the court’s decision to publicly implicate political 

parties in the city’s violence. The importance of political consent for effective law enforcement 

was separately highlighted in March 2011, when police officers publicly stated that the only 

reason they could arrest suspected target killer Ajmal Pahari was because he had lost the backing of a major political party. 

Army Intervention

Investigative journalists and representatives of political parties report that the Pakistan Army’s 

Corps Commander Karachi Lieutenant General Zaheerul Islam engaged with the leaders 

of all Karachi’s major political parties and helped broker a stalemate. The army’s interest in 

stabilizing Karachi was evident before this intervention: In August 2011, Pakistan army chief 

General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani announced that the army was willing to restore law and order in Karachi if the federal or provincial governments asked it to do so. In September the 

army chief visited Karachi to review the security situation and meet with political stakeholders and business leaders affected by the ongoing violence. Given Karachi’s crucial role in the 

fight against militancy, its central importance to the transit of any NATO equipment through 

Pakistan, and its effect on the national economy, Pakistan’s army is likely to monitor security 

developments in the city and launch future interventions if necessary. Army intervention is not, 

Pakistan’s army is likely 

to monitor security 

developments in the 

city and launch future 

interventions if necessary. 

Army intervention is 

not, however, a 

sustainable solution to 

Karachi’s violence.
30

PEACEWORKS 82

however, a sustainable solution to Karachi’s violence for several reasons. First, increased army 

pressure would undermine political parties and Pakistan’s tenuous democratic setup. Second, 

army crackdowns on criminal and militant gangs could lead to extrajudicial killings and other 

human rights violations that would spur resentment and create more armed resistance in the 

long run. Third, while the army is equipped to conduct security operations, it does not have the 

capacity to provide consistent, hyper-local, street-by-street policing, which is the only antidote 

to violence in the narrow alleyways of Karachi’s endless slums.

Resignation of Sindh Home Minister Zulfiqar Mirza

Mirza, who had styled himself as the Sindhi nationalist voice from among the PPP, and who 

had cultivated the PAC as a counterpoint to MQM’s armed wings, resigned from his post 

as Sindh home minister on August 28, 2011. Mirza had been an incendiary political figure, 

and his anti-MQM comments had sparked violent clashes on several occasions. His support 

for the PAC and its affiliated criminal gangs—which routinely clashed with other groups in 

the context of land grabs, arms smuggling, extortion, and other illegal activities—also gave 

an MQM-PPP political bent to widespread criminal violence in the city. Mirza’s resignation 

empowered the PPP to ban the PAC and rehabilitate relations with the MQM. 

The Challenges of Stabilizing Karachi 

The failure to disrupt violence in Karachi in 2011 indicates that the initiatives and interventions aimed at restoring law and order in Karachi are not systematic or sustainable. Political 

pressure and exceptional interventions by the highest levels of the judiciary and army were 

required to suspend Karachi’s ethnopolitical violence in 2011. The situation also benefited from 

the resignation of a divisive political figure. The only factor that can prevent future cycles of 

violence is political consensus; as such, it is the key to stabilizing Karachi. 

Karachi’s tragedy is that the political actors tasked with stabilizing and running the city are 

the major destabilizing forces. Mainstream political parties have chosen to approach Karachi 

like a feudal landholding, equating access to land and municipal resources with political power. 

Karachi cannot be stable until these parties are willing to participate in a representative, powersharing arrangement that reflects the city’s evolving dynamics and demographics. 

One current challenge of stabilizing Karachi is that the issue of political representation 

cannot be determined without a transparent census. On this matter, the city is caught in a 

vicious cycle. Each political party will try to delay, block, or manipulate the census to reveal 

demographic trends in its favor. As mentioned above, all the major parties, the MQM, ANP 

and PPP, stand to both gain and lose in the face of accurate census data. However, without an 

up-to-date census, the issue of adequate political representation cannot be broached. 

Another challenge is that the mohajir population is proportionally getting smaller and 

does not have a provincial base from which to bolster its ranks. According to some studies, 

Pashtuns in Karachi will outnumber Urdu-speaking mohajirs in less than thirty years.90 In 

recent years, the MQM has tried to reposition itself as a national party to widen its base 

from urban Sindh. The MQM has contested elections in Kashmir, supported the creation 

of new provinces in the Punjab to appeal to Seraiki-speaking voters, and consistently spoken against extremist violence and the TTP. However, the MQM’s national rhetoric and 

issue-based politics have been undermined by the 2010–11 violence in Karachi, which reiterated the MQM’s original identity as a Karachi-focused party that prioritizes the defense 

of the Urdu-speaking community against all others. As long as the MQM does not find 

Karachi’s tragedy is that 

the political actors tasked 

with stabilizing and 

running the city are the 

major destabilizing forces.
31

CONFLICT DYNAMICS IN KARACHI

a viable future course for its political survival, it will try to maintain its stranglehold over 

Karachi, through violence if necessary. 

The political devolution of power to the provinces under the Eighteenth Amendment also 

points to an escalation in tussles between Karachi’s city government and the Sindh provincial 

government. The province urgently needs to draft an equitable arrangement for sharing provincial resources in light of Karachi’s disproportionate size and revenue generation. Without 

such an arrangement, tensions between ethnic Sindhis represented by the PPP and Karachibased mohajirs represented by the MQM will heighten, leading to new waves of ethnopolitical 

violence, not only in Karachi, but across urban Sindh. While the economic and developmental 

uplift of the Sindh province is the main solution to this province-city quarrel, few politicians 

or civil society actors have raised the issue. 

Yet another factor preventing political negotiations is that the major political parties have 

no ongoing mechanism or uninterruptible platform through which parties can engage on 

contentious issues in a sustained manner. At times of heightened violence, the National Assembly has convened special standing committees to debate law and order issues. The Sindh 

governor also has organized core committee meetings bringing together representatives of the 

MQM, ANP, and PPP. However, agreements reached at these meetings are not seen as binding. Moreover, when ethnopolitical violence flares, parties refuse to participate in meetings. In 

2011 Supreme Court hearings and backchannel pressure from the army was required to make 

the political parties reach a consensus about halting violence. Similarly, when violence flared 

again in March 2012, the speaker of the National Assembly had to make a special request for 

the interior minister to mediate between rival political parties. Owing to such ad hoc efforts, 

political negotiations cannot always be relied on to halt violent clashes. 

One point of agreement between the parties—the need to scale back TTP presence in the 

city—is also held hostage by ethnopolitical dynamics. TTP fighters have taken up residence 

primarily in Orangi, Baldia, and SITE, administrative towns in Karachi that ethnic Pashtuns 

have long inhabited. Attempts to counter Taliban presence in the city thus have an ethnic 

dimension, with a dominantly Punjabi police force conducting raids or an MQM-led, mohajirmajority government ordering paramilitary operations in Pashtun areas. Attempts to root out 

TTP militants are thus likely to spark ethnic clashes that cause far greater disruptions than 

targeted militant attacks, and enable members of the TTP to proceed unhindered with their 

operational planning. 

Conclusion

Given the many challenges of stabilizing Karachi, the only solution to incessant ethnopolitical 

violence and criminal activities such as extortion is political negotiation leading to a culture of 

representative politics. Other forms of urban violence—such as sectarian and militant—are 

not as intrinsically linked to political negotiations, and countering these forms of violence will 

require a revision of Pakistan’s national security policy, madrassah reform, revision of antiterrorism legislation, and other nationwide policy initiatives. But the basic law and order required 

to control the fallout of sectarian and militant violence requires good governance, political will, 

and an efficient police force that operates without political constraints. Political reconciliation 

and power sharing are prerequisites for these factors. 

Given the political bent of Karachi’s insecurity, violence is likely to increase in the runup to the 2013 general elections as political parties vie for voters through increased access to 

land, extorted funds, and other resources. The entry of Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf 

The only solution to 

incessant ethnopolitical 

violence and criminal 

activities is political 

negotiation leading 

to a culture of 

representative politics. 
32

PEACEWORKS 82

(PTI) party to Karachi’s political mix after a successful rally in December 2011 that attracted 

over 100,000 supporters could also fuel violence. Analysts suggest that the PTI could split the 

Pashtun vote in Karachi, a development the MQM is likely to encourage. A new political actor 

and a greater sense of marginalization among the ANP could spark further cycles of violence. 

Moreover, attempts to forge a new coalition government after the 2013 elections will also trigger violent politics as different political parties use citywide clashes as a pressure tactic to gain 

concessions, political patronage, and key cabinet positions at the federal and provincial levels. 

The ongoing political violence is likely to create space for the TTP, sectarian, and other 

extremist groups to further establish their presence in Karachi. In the short term, the city’s 

militant presence will be bolstered by the arrival of militants fleeing drone strikes, military 

operations, and other counterterrorism initiatives in northwestern Pakistan in a last push 

before U.S. troops withdraw from Afghanistan in 2014. Heightened ethnopolitical and militant activity in Karachi will also lead to a surge in land grabs, extortion, kidnappings for ransom, and robberies, as both political parties and militant groups seek to generate funds. In 

short, Karachi’s security environment is likely to continue deteriorating. 

Persistent violence in Karachi will have nationwide political and security implications. On 

the political front, a post-2013 coalition government comprising political parties with a stake 

in Karachi might not survive an escalation in ethnopolitical tensions and turf wars. On the 

security side, fundraising initiatives and collaborations between militant groups forged in Karachi will increase the risk of terrorist attacks elsewhere in Pakistan. More broadly, pervasive 

socioeconomic challenges and demographic pressures within the city will fuel militant recruitment and the spread of extremist ideology across the country. These security issues will 

continue to negatively affect the flailing economy as ethnopolitical, sectarian, militant, and 

criminal violence paralyze the city’s economic activities. Pakistani policymakers invested in 

national stability must therefore urgently address Karachi’s violence and emphasize comprehensive rather than cosmetic solutions. 

In this context and given the central importance of Karachi, Pakistan’s government should 

take the following measures to stem violence in the city: 

■ Conduct a transparent census. Gathering accurate census data is the first step to ensuring 

inclusive political representation. 

■ Establish a standing committee comprising representatives of Karachi-based political parties,

particularly the MQM, ANP, and PPP. This committee should have formal and regular 

liaisons with the Sindh chief minister, provincial home minister, and Sindh inspector 

general to ensure that committee resolutions and policies are implemented. Regular 

political contact should be relied on to defuse violent clashes and the committee’s agreements should be treated as binding. 

■ Create alternatives to political parties in the form of social, civil society, or communitybased organizations that can provide access to urban resources such as land and utilities 

connections as well as legal protection. 

■ Develop a robust job creation program so young Karachiites are not vulnerable to recruitment by militias and militant groups or reliant on political connections for new opportunities and career advancement. 

■ Streamline urban planning and make all bodies tasked with development and infrastructure 

projects accountable. Policymakers currently have no plans to improve the city’s basic 

infrastructure, public transport, or educational facilities. Without overall urban uplift, 

the various challenges of stabilizing Karachi will only become more entrenched. 
33

CONFLICT DYNAMICS IN KARACHI

■ Freeze all new urban development projects until an accurate land use survey is completed. 

New developments should then be regularized on the basis of land use surveys and tailored to ensure the adequate provision of low-income housing and public spaces. 

■ Implement measures to ensure the independence of police stations from political parties, such as 

by regularly rotating high-ranking police officers. 

■ Increase the access of police officers to federal intelligence resources and personnel as well as 

improved intelligence gathering training. Facilitate better policing through improved 

interagency security cooperation. 

■ Establish a system of community policing. Karachi requires systematic street-by-street scrutiny and police officials are better positioned than military, paramilitary, or intelligence 

personnel to develop nuanced understandings of local communities, political dynamics, 

and crime trends. 

■ Enhance the capacity of the legal system, including ATCs and public prosecutors. The provincial high court and Supreme Court should monitor ATCs to ensure transparency, 

impartiality, and prompt disposal of cases. 

■ Implement a world-class witness protection program.

■ In neighborhoods inhabited by multiple ethnic groups, create multiparty committees to help promote ethnic harmony and resolve disputes such as land grabs and extortion. 

■ Reallocate portions of the Sindh Rangers budget to the Karachi police force to enable new 

recruitment, better training, and the purchase of weapons. 

U.S. policymakers, too, are advised to monitor Karachi’s violent landscape, which is likely 

to emerge as a major fault line in the U.S.-Pakistan bilateral relationship. In the medium term, 

U.S. counterterrorism initiatives in the region are likely to be challenged as a result of Karachi 

becoming the preferred hideout of TTP, Afghan Taliban, and other extremist and sectarian 

militants. As this report has shown, Karachi’s urban density and sprawl offer the best militant 

hideout. However, U.S. counterterrorism initiatives such as drone strikes cannot be enacted in 

Karachi, which, unlike FATA, is Pakistan’s financial capital and largest city. Intelligence gathering will also be difficult owing to the tendency among residents of ethnic enclaves to closely 

survey their neighborhood for signs of intruders from other ethnic or political groups. 

The international community might perceive the growing presence of militants in Karachi 

as further proof of Pakistan’s willingness to harbor militant groups on its territory. As militants 

continue to relocate to Karachi and plan both nationwide and regional operations, Pakistan 

and the United States will have to confront the challenge of fighting militancy in Pakistan’s 

largest city. The city’s security situation could hinder U.S. contributions toward creating a stable 

Pakistan, most of which are predicated on countering extremism and stabilizing the economy 

through jobs programs, infrastructure, and energy projects. The success of national and regional 

counterterrorist and economic programs hinges on the stability of Karachi. U.S. policymakers 

invested in creating a secure Pakistan have to confront the fact that destabilizing Karachi is 

akin to destabilizing Pakistan. 

35

CONFLICT DYNAMICS IN KARACHI

Notes

1. Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies (PIPS), “Pakistan Security Report 2011,” Islamabad, January 2012, 

available at http://san-pips.com/download.php?f=108.pdf (accessed July 20, 2012). PIPS data show that 685 

people died in 246 incidents of political violence in Karachi in 2011. The total number of violent deaths in 

2011 was 7,107, including the number of people who died in terrorist attacks, security forces operations, 

drone attacks, border clashes, clashes between security forces and militants, political violence, and intertribal 

clashes. These figures do not include ethnic, sectarian, and criminal violence. 

2. Azmat Ali Budhani, Haris Gazdar, Sobia Ahmed Kaker, and Hussain Bux Mallah, “The Open City: Social 

Networks and Violence in Karachi,” Working Paper no. 70, Crisis States Research Center, DESTIN, 

London School of Economics, March 2010. 

3. A.B. Shahid, “Karachi Violence Takes Economic Toll,” Dawn, April 8, 2012, available at http://dawn.

com/2012/04/08/karachi-violence-takes-economic-toll/ (accessed July 20, 2012).

4. Mercer, “2011 Quality of Living Worldwide City Rankings: Mercer Survey,” November 29, 2011, available 

at http://www.mercer.com/press-releases/quality-of-living-report-2011 (accessed July 20, 2012).

5. “Pakistan’s Urban Population to Equal Rural by 2030: UNFPA,” Daily Times, June 28, 2007, available at 

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007\06\28\story_28-6-2007_pg7_9 (accessed July 20, 

2012).

6. “Karachi Violence Kills 1,034 since Jan.,” Press TV, October 31, 2010, available at http://edition.presstv.ir/

detail/148997.html (accessed July 20, 2012).

7. Ali Chishti, “The Deadliest Year in Karachi’s History?” The Friday Times, January 6, 2012, available at 

http://www.thefridaytimes.com/beta2/tft/article.php?issue=20120106&page=4 (accessed July 20, 2012).

8. Agence France-Presse, “At Least 740 Killed in Karachi in Five Months: HRCP,” Dawn, June 5, 2012, 

available at http://dawn.com/2012/06/05/at-least-740-killed-in-karachi-in-five-months-hrcp/ (accessed 

July 20, 2012).

9. Budhani, Gazdar, Kaker, and Mallah, “The Open City.” 

10. Ziaur Rehman, “Demographic Divide,” The Friday Times, July 15–21, 2011. 

11. Farida Shaheed, “The Pathan-Muhajir Conflicts, 1985–6: A National Perspective,” in Veena Das, ed., 

Mirrors of Violence: Communities, Riots, and Survivors in South Asia (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1990).

12. Arif Hasan, “Sindh Local Government: The Real Issues,” The Express Tribune, January 10, 2012, available 

at http://tribune.com.pk/story/319333/sindh-local-government-the-real-issues/ (accessed July 20, 2012).

13. Interview with Taj Haider, Karachi, January 12, 2012. 

14. “Violence Erupts in Various Areas of Karachi,” The Express Tribune, April 11, 2012, available at http://tribune.com.pk/story/363003/violence-erupts-in-various-areas-of-karachi/ (accessed July 20, 2012).

15. Faraz Khan and Sameer Mandhro, “Mohajir Province Controversy: Firing on Pro-Sindh Rally Sets Off 

Alarm Bells,” The Express Tribune, May 23, 2012, available at http://tribune.com.pk/story/382848/mohajirprovince-controversy-firing-on-pro-sindh-rally-sets-off-alarm-bells/ (accessed July 20, 2012). 

16. Asghar Azad, “Committee Formed to Launch Joint Struggle against SLGO,” The Daily Times, August 10, 

2011, available at http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2011%5C08%5C10%5Cstory_10-8-

2011_pg12_9 (accessed July 24, 2012); Kaiser Bengali, “Local Government in Sindh,” Dawn, November 3, 

2011, available at http://dawn.com/2011/11/03/local-government-in-sindh/ (accessed July 26, 2012).

17. Citizens Police Liaison Committee, “Crime Statistics,” available at http://www.cplc.org.pk/content.

php?page=7 (accessed July 20, 2012).

18. Faraz Khan, “Violence Erupts after 2 MQM Workers Slain,” The Daily Times, April 30, 2009, available at 

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2009%5C04%5C30%5Cstory_30-4-2009_pg12_1 

(accessed July 20, 2012).

19. Faraz Khan, “Violence 101: A Primer to the Lyari Gang War,” The Express Tribune, May 2, 2012, available 

at http://tribune.com.pk/story/372834/violence-101-a-primer-to-the-lyari-gang-war-karachi/ (accessed July 

20, 2012).

20. “Two Torture Cells Unearthed and 133 Arrested as Rangers Sweep through Lyari,” The Express Tribune, 

August 29, 2011, available at http://tribune.com.pk/story/241089/rangers-begin-operation-in-lyari-36-people-detained-for-investigation/ (accessed July 26, 2012). 

21. Rehman, “Demographic Divide.” 

22. Interviews, Karachi, December 12, 2011 and January 9, 2012.

23. “Lyari Violence: Unrest Pours into Other Areas of Karachi, 7 Injured,” The Express Tribune, April 14, 2012, 

available at http://tribune.com.pk/story/364590/lyari-violence-unrest-pours-into-other-areas-of-karachi7-injured/ (accessed July 20, 2012).

24. Raza Hassan, “Four Killed, Two DSPs Injured in Lyari Violence,” Dawn, April 30, 2012, available at http://

dawn.com/2012/04/30/four-killed-two-dsps-injured-in-lyari-violence/ (accessed July 20, 2012).
36

PEACEWORKS 82

25. Abbas Jalbani, “Lyari: A Virtual War Zone,” Dawn, April 29, 2012, available at http://dawn.com/2012/04/29/

lyari-a-virtual-war-zone/ (accessed July 20, 2012).

26. Ziaur Rehman, “Lyari’s Baloch Community Rethinks Support for PPP,” The Friday Times, April 13–19, 

2012, available at http://www.thefridaytimes.com/beta2/tft/article.php?issue=20120413&page=6 (accessed 

July 26, 2012); Saher Baloch, “Gabol Accuses PAC of Killing Malik Khan,” The News, April 27, 2012, 

available at http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-4-105176-Gabol-accuses-PAC-of-killing-MalikKhan (accessed July 26, 2012). 

27. “Rs12.1 Million Extortion Money Collected Daily in Karachi,” The News, February 2, 2012, available at 

http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=12199&Cat=13 (accessed July 20, 2012).

28. “Malik Blames Political Parties for Extortion in Karachi,” Dawn, April 23, 2012, available at http://dawn.

com/2012/04/23/malik-blames-political-parties-for-extortion-in-karachi/ (accessed July 20, 2012).

29. “Shutterdown Strike Observed in Karachi,” Dawn, June 13, 2012, available at http://dawn.com/2012/06/13/

shutterdown-strike-observed-in-karachi/ (accessed July 20, 2012).

30. Saher Baloch, “Extortion—Protesting in Whispers,” The News, March 19, 2012, available at http://www.

thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-4-98351-Extortion-—-protesting-in-whispers (accessed July 20, 2012). 

31. Dexter Filkins and Mark Mazzetti, “Secret Joint Raid Captures Taliban’s Top Commander,” The New York 

Times, February 15, 2010, available at http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/16/world/asia/16intel.html?

pagewanted=all (accessed July 20, 2012).

32. Jeff Stein, “Report: Pakistani Spy Agency Rushed Mullah Omar to Hospital,” The Washington Post, January 

18, 2011, available at http://voices.washingtonpost.com/spy-talk/2011/01/mullah_omar_treated_for_heart.

html (accessed July 20, 2012).

33. “ISPR Denies Mullah Omar’s Treatment in Karachi,” The Express Tribune, January 20, 2011, available at 

http://tribune.com.pk/story/106554/ispr-denies-mullah-omars-treatment-in-karachi/ (accessed July 20, 2012). 

34. Tom Hussain, “Karachi, Besham Choice Home Bases for Afghan Taliban,” The News International, http://

www.thenews.com.pk/PrintEdition.aspx?ID=68140&Cat=2&dt=4/19/2012 (accessed July 20, 2012).

35. Interview, Karachi, January 7, 2012.

36. Interviews, Karachi, December 19, 2011, and January 7, 2012.

37. PIPS, “Security Report.”

38. Associated Press, “Karachi CID Bomb Attack Shows Militant Reach,” Dawn, November 12, 2010, available at http://www.dawn.com/2010/11/12/karachi-cid-bomb-attack-shows-militant-reach.html (accessed 

July 20, 2012).

39. Faisal Aziz and Imtiaz Shah, “Taliban Attack Two Navy Buses in Karachi, 4 Dead,” Reuters, April 26, 2011, 

available at http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/26/us-pakistan-blasts-idUSTRE73P0Z420110426 

(accessed July 20, 2012).

40. Declan Walsh, “Pakistani Militants Hit Karachi Naval Base in Bin Laden Revenge Attack,” Guardian, May 

23, 2011, available at http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/23/militants-attack-pakistani-navalbase-karachi (accessed July 20, 2012).

41. Salman Siddiqui, “Taliban Hit List: Battleground Shifts from Headquarters to Home,” The Express Tribune, 

September 19, 2011, available at http://tribune.com.pk/story/255507/blast-in-karachi-targets-ssp-cid/ 

(accessed July 20, 2012).

42. “Blast Kills Three Militants, Two Police Officials in Karachi,” Dawn, November 17, 2011, available at 

http://www.dawn.com/2011/11/16/bomb-blast-at-sea-view-kills-one-in-karachi-dawnnews.html (accessed 

July 20, 2012).

43. Ziaur Rehman, “Karachi Militants Split into Smaller Groups,” Central Asia Online, June 24, 2011, available 

at http://www.centralasiaonline.com/en_GB/articles/caii/features/pakistan/main/2011/06/24/feature-01 

(accessed July 20, 2012).

44. Ziaur Rehman, “Karachi Security Forces Shatter Militants,” Central Asia Online, January 23, 2012, available 

at http://www.centralasiaonline.com/en_GB/articles/caii/features/pakistan/main/2012/01/23/feature-01 

(accessed July 20, 2012).

45. Tim Lister, “Police: Pakistani Taliban Leader Seized in Karachi,” CNN, January 5, 2012, available at http://

articles.cnn.com/2012-01-05/asia/world_asia_pakistan-taliban-arrested_1_pakistani-taliban-baitullahmehsud-pakistan-taliban?_s=PM:ASIA (accessed July 20, 2012).

46. “Busted: TTP’s Mullah Hakeem and Four Kidnappers Arrested,” The Express Tribune, February 5, 2012, 

available at http://tribune.com.pk/story/332061/busted-ttps-mullah-hakeem-and-four-kidnappersarrested/?print=true (accessed July 20, 2012).

47. “TTP Balochistan Chief Killed in CID Police Raid in Karachi,” South Asian News Agency, January 7, 2012, 

available at http://www.sananews.net/english/2012/01/ttp-balochistan-chief-killed-in-cid-police-raid-inkarachi/ (accessed July 20, 2012).

48. Alex Rodriguez, “Taliban Finds Room to Hide in Karachi,” Los Angeles Times, March 2, 2010, available at 

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/mar/02/world/la-fg-karachi-taliban2-2010mar02 (accessed July 22, 2012).
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CONFLICT DYNAMICS IN KARACHI

49. Ziaur Rehman and Amna Jamal, “Karachi Bank Heists Blamed on Militants,” Central Asia Online, December 

12, 2011, available at http://centralasiaonline.com/en_GB/articles/caii/features/pakistan/main/2011/12/12/

feature-01 (accessed July 22, 2012).

50. Salman Siddiqui, “Kidnapping for Ransom Cases Hit 20-Year High,” Express Tribune, November 4, 2010, 

available at http://tribune.com.pk/story/72260/kidnapping-for-ransom-cases-hit-20-year-high/ (accessed 

July 22, 2012).

51. “89 Abducted during 2011 in Karachi,” The Nation, October 15, 2011, available at http://www.nation.com.

pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/karachi/15-Oct-2011/89-abducted-during-2011-inKarachi (accessed July 22, 2012).

52. “Kidnapped: Industrialist Riaz Chinoy found,” The Express Tribune, December 6, 2011. 

53. “Qari Shahid Involved in PNS Mehran, Other Attacks: Police,” Dawn News, December 14, 2011, available at 

http://www.dawn.com/2011/12/14/qari-shahid-involved-in-pns-mehran-other-attacks-police.html (accessed 

July 22, 2012).

54. Associated Press, “Pakistani Taliban Raise Funds through Street Crime,” Dawn, October 12, 2011, available at http://www.dawn.com/2011/10/12/pakistani-taliban-raise-funds-through-street-crime.html 

(accessed July 22, 2012).

55. “Rehman Malik Sees Foreign Hand in Karachi Killings,” The Daily Times, November 30, 2011, available at 

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2011%5C11%5C30%5Cstory_30-11-2011_pg7_15 

(accessed on July 26, 2011).

56. Ziaur Rehman, “Karachi Banned Militant Groups Become Active on Eve of Muharram,” Central Asia 

Online, November 21, 2011, available at http://centralasiaonline.com/en_GB/articles/caii/features/pakistan/

main/2011/11/21/feature-01 (accessed July 22, 2012).

57. “Changing Face of Militancy in Karachi,” The Express Tribune, May 8, 2010, available at http://tribune.com.

pk/story/11626/changing-face-of-militancy-in-karachi/ (accessed July 22, 2012).

58. “Target Killings: Doctor-Killing ‘Mahdi Force’ Busted,” The Express Tribune, January 3, 2011, available at http://

tribune.com.pk/story/98230/target-killings-doctor-killing-mehdi-force-busted/ (accessed July 22, 2012).

59. PIPS, “Security Report,” 18.

60. Naziha Ali, “Changing Trends in Sectarian Killing,” Dawn, March 16, 2012, available at http://www.dawn.

com/2012/03/16/changing-trends-in- sectarian-killings.html (accessed July 22, 2012).

61. PIPS, “Security Report,” 18.

62. Javed Mahmood, “TTP-Backed Militants Trigger Sectarianism,” Central Asia Online, May 9, 2012, available at http://centralasiaonline.com/en_GB/articles/caii/features/pakistan/main/2012/05/09/feature-01 

(accessed July 26, 2012).

63. “Karachi Death Toll Rises after Raza Haider Killing,” BBC News, August 3, 2010, available at http://www.

bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-10859706 (accessed July 22, 2012).

64. Interviews, Karachi, December 19, 2011, and January 7, 2012.

65. Ziaur Rehman, “Karachi’s New Terrorist Groups,” The Friday Times, January 6–12, 2012, 5. 

66. Arif Hasan, Understanding Karachi: Planning and Reform for the Future (Karachi: City Press, 2002), 521. 

67. Salman Qureshi, “Karachi’s Population Explosion Far Greater than Experts’ Calculations,” Pakistan Today, 

December 6, 2011, available at http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2011/12/06/city/karachi/karachi’s-population-explosion-far-greater-than-experts’-calculations/ (accessed July 22, 2012).

68. Taimur Khan, “Letter from Karachi: Pakistan’s Urban Bulge,” Foreign Affairs, January 6, 2011, available at 

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/features/letters-from/letter-from-karachi-pakistans-urban-bulge (accessed 

July 22, 2012).

69. “8,000 Acres of Amenity Plots Have Been Occupied in Karachi,” Archi Times, available at http://www.

archpresspk.com/april09_plots.htm (accessed July 22, 2012).

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73. Qaiser Zulfiqar, “Karachi Suo Moto: Verdict Out,” The Express Tribune, October 6, 2011, available at http://

tribune.com.pk/story/267671/law-and-order-supreme-courts-verdict-in-suo-motu-karachi-violence-casetoday/ (accessed July 22, 2012).

74. Tahir Siddiqui, “Slow Disposal of Cases by ATCs Displeases CJ,” Dawn, December 25, 2011, available at 

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76. Siddiqui, “Slow Disposal.” 

77. Ishaq Tanoli, “Jail Trial in 100 Terror Cases Stands Still for Want of Courtroom,” Dawn, April 23, 2012, 

available at http://dawn.com/2012/04/23/jail-trial-in-100-terror-cases-stands-still-for-want-of-courtroom/ 

(accessed July 22, 2012).

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81. Haroon Jamal and Amir Khan, “Trends in Regional Human Development Indices,” Social Policy and 

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82. Qureshi, ”Karachi’s Population Explosion.”

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84. Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN), “Wealth Gap Blamed for Surge in Crime,” February 

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(accessed July 22, 2012).

85. “8,000 Acres.” 

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88. Imran Ayub, “Over 16,000 Arms Licenses Issued in Six Months,” Dawn, March 25, 2012, available at 

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2012).

89. Zulfiqar, “Karachi Suo Moto.” 

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tribune.com.pk/story/365643/karachi-a-tower-of-babel/ (accessed July 22, 2012).


 3

About the Institute

The United States Institute of Peace is an independent, nonpartisan 

institution established and funded by Congress. Its goals are to 

help prevent and resolve violent conflicts, promote postconflict 

peacebuilding, and increase conflict management tools, capacity, and 

intellectual capital worldwide. The Institute does this by empowering 

others with knowledge, skills, and resources, as well as by its direct 

involvement in conflict zones around the globe.

Board of Directors

J. Robinson West (Chair), Chairman, PFC Energy, Washington, D.C. •

George E. Moose (Vice Chair), Adjunct Professor of Practice, The George 

Washington University, Washington, D.C. • Judy Ansley, Former Assistant 

to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor under George W. 

Bush, Washington, D.C. • Eric Edelman, Hertog Distinguished Practitioner in Residence, Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, Washington, D.C. • Kerry Kennedy, President, Robert F. 

Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights, Washington, D.C. • 

Ikram U. Khan, President, Quality Care Consultants, LLC, Las Vegas, Nev • 

Stephen D. Krasner, Graham H. Stuart Professor of International 

Relations, Stanford University, Palo Alto, Calif. • John A. Lancaster, 

Former Executive Director, International Council on Independent Living, 

Potsdam, N.Y. • Jeremy A. Rabkin, Professor of Law, George Mason University, Fairfax, Va. • Judy Van Rest, Executive Vice President, International Republican Institute, Washington, D.C. • Nancy Zirkin, Executive 

Vice President, Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, 

Washington, D.C.

Members Ex Officio

Michael H. Posner, Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, 

Human Rights, and Labor • James N. Miller, Principal Deputy Under 

Secretary of Defense for Policy • Gregg F. Martin, Major General, U.S. 

Army; President, National Defense University • Jim Marshall, President, 

United States Institute of Peace (nonvoting)
4 Looking for Justice

Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city and financial capital, is also 

wracked by ethnopolitical, sectarian, militant, and criminal 

violence that has claimed more than 7,000 lives since 2008. 

The city’s precarious security situation has serious implications 

for the U.S.-Pakistan bilateral relationship owing to its growing 

role in national and regional terrorism. This report analyzes the 

city’s multiple and intersecting types of violence, identifies 

violent actors, highlights the systemic issues that drive violence, 

examines state initiatives to stem violence and reasons why 

these efforts failed, and calls for the government to tackle the 

violence’s underlying causes.

PEACEWORKS • OCTOBER 2012 • NO. 82 

UNITED STATES INSTITUTE OF PEACE • 2301 CONSTITUTION AVE. NW • WASHINGTON, DC 20037 • USIP.ORG 

Related Links 

■ Pakistan’s Energy Crisis by Elizabeth Mills (Peaceworks, June 2012)

■ How Pakistan Negotiates with the United States: Riding the Roller Coaster

(USIP Press, 2011) by Howard B. Schaffer and Teresita C. Schaffer 

■ Moving Forward with the Legal Empowerment of Women in Pakistan by 

Anita Weiss (Special Report, May 2012)

■ The PTI and Pakistan’s Changing Political Landscape by Stephanie 

Flamenbaum (Peace Brief, May 2012)

■ Who Controls Pakistan’s Security Forces? by Shuja Nawaz (Special Report, 

December 2011)

■ Reforming Pakistan’s Police and Law Enforcement Infrastructure: Is It Too 

Flawed to Fix? by Hassan Abbas (Special Report, February 2011)