Evading the Middleman

Siddiqui insists that the government go directly to the people, but thus far, the government has not been interested in interfering with local elites. SKAA and Saiban sought and achieved the simplification of procedures and maximum community participation that they deemed essential for success. Whether that success will survive attack from local elites remains to be seen. In several cases, SKAA has retreated from katchi abadis where local powers interfered too much. Similar schemes in other countries, including the United States’ Community Action Programs (CAP) of the 1960s, promised “maximum feasible participation,” but incensed local authorities moved to thwart CAPs where they could have created competing centers of urban power. SKAA critics complain that migrants are primarily moving from Punjabi-speaking Northern provinces into Urdu-speaking Karachi and therefore shifting the city’s political leanings from the Muhajir Qaumi Mahaz (Refugee People’s Movement) toward the Pakistan Muslim League Party, led by deposed premier Nawaz Sharif. However, purely economic reasons may well explain why the Northern and Frontier provinces are sources of the current wave of migrants, whereas previous waves flowed in from India in 1947 and from East Pakistan/Bangladesh in 1971.

Despite President Pervez Musharraf and the provincial governments’ insistence that katchi abadi dwellers along railway lines not be evicted without alternative affordable accommodation, in March 2000 the railway chief moved to demolish many dwellings, and only a storm of protest halted his efforts. However, water and electricity were not restored to the areas, and campaigners who fought to save katchi abadis were reportedly jailed on terrorism charges. These aggressive actions point to internal splits in governing circles over the fate of katchi abadis. In addition, according to Arif Hasan of the Orangi Pilot Project, “insensitive projects that displace communities are constantly approved and often funded by international agencies.” There is surely a long way to go in integrating the “informal city” into official plans.

The SKAA, Orangi Pilot Project, and other community activists continuously confront hostile developers and narrow-minded bureaucrats. Old attitudes do not vanish overnight, but Siddiqui sees no reason to settle for moderate success. “There is a pressing need to overhaul the existing system through social change,” he believes. Still, the political power of shantytown residents is putting increasing pressure on Third World governments to act to meet the needs of their poor.