Karachi is bleeding again. Mohajirs against Pathans, MQM against ANP or the ISI against Karachi, the cycle of blood-shed has hit the city. Six months ago 35 had perished in a similar violence. The media reports two dozen dead but the numbers could be as high as 40 in one day of violence this time.

In April 2008, Sher Afgan Niazi, who used to be a minister in President Musharraf’s cabinet, was beaten up by a group of lawyers in Lahore and somebody slapped the ex-chief minister of Sindh Arbab Ghulam Rahim with a shoe. Karachi saw a bloody day with seven dead, scores wounded and property destroyed. Karachi turns out to be the action ground where the powerful fight their gunbattles for supremacy.

For a city of seventeen million Karachi holds a variety of ethnic migrants from India and the rest of Pakistan. The majority of the citizens are migrants or descendants of migrants from India represented by the MQM. This party came to eminence by prevailing in a series of gun-battles that pitched them against other ethnic groups, specially the Pathans.

After the ethnic riots in 1985 and 1986, MQM had gained dominance of the city politics and it did not take them long to translate their street power into votes. They run the city government. The exercise of governing a big city is different than running an extortion scam but this urban political outfit did not lose touch with its past.

Pathans voted for the Awami National Party in 2008 elections. The two parties have been clashing for some time but the current spate of violence is being connected to the incident of 12th May 2007. MQM was an ally of the Musharraf government in Islamabad and the chief justice dismissed by Musharraf was supposed to address a rally of lawyers in Karachi. Those who wanted to attend were fired at, killing dozens.

ANP supported the peace deal with Taliban in Swat and MQM opposed it on the floor of the National Assembly. MQM had been complaining of Talibanisation of Karachi for some time. Pakistan Peoples Party, the ruling party in Sindh and Pakistan has been ambivalent to the MQM complaint. More than one hundred thousand migrants from FATA and NWFP have moved into the city in recent months.

After their show of dissent in the National Assembly, MQM blamed ANP pointedly for the passage of Nizam-e-Adl resolution, deliberately ignoring the fact that this peace deal with Taliban was signed after the military had decided to back-off from Swat. MQM never mentioned the army, PPP or PML in their opposition of the new law.

President Asif Zardari has lived a good part of his life in Karachi and he has seen the MQM rise. All political parties have seen their share in popularity taken away but the power of MQM always came through when challenged.

ANP had decided to hold a memorial rally on the 12th of May and MQM opposed it. There were clashes and killings. The Sindh government announced a ban on public rallies and ANP declared a shutter down strike instead. Killings continued. The atmosphere is charged with ethnic hatred but it could be more than pathans and the ANP involved.

The businessmen in Lyari refused to pay the extortion money they used to pay and confronted the collectors with guns. Lyari is the stronghold of Peoples Party and it looks like ANP has a partner in this fight. President Zardari, after failing in Punjab could be playing politics Karachi style quite tactfully, with the ANP in front.

Taliban have built hundreds of madressahs and mosques in and around Karachi and they guard their areas with loaded guns and RPGs in broad daylight. MQM has been unable to scare them away and the fighting this time could be deadlier than ever. Taliban have already warned the co-ed schools to shut down in Karachi.

No matter who wins this fight, innocent lives would be lost. A Pathan working in a Mohajir neighbourhood for small wages could lose his life and a Mohajir living next to a Pathan settlement could be decapitated.

The mayhem thus created would provide Taliban the golden opportunity to take-over the city and accomplish their goal of stopping the US/NATO supplies through Karachi port. The nuclear power plant of the city would be another asset to fall in Taliban hands.

Such an event could cause a chain reaction. The government in Islamabad could fall and eventually the country could disintegrate. Loss of innocent lives do not compare to the lofty political ambitions of the few.