On gaining independence, Karachi – a modest trading post with 450,000 inhabitants – became the capital city of Pakistan. Over the years, it welcomed all into its magnanimous fold.

Today, a megalopolis of nearly 300 million people, it is the industrial and business hub of Pakistan. Accounting for 65 per cent of the national and 75 per cent of the provincial revenue, this city merited being the showpiece of Pakistan.

That was not to be, however. Corruption, crime, and ethnicity ensured that Karachi, the city that was, regressed into the potted, rutted and totally gutted entity it is today. The reason: each societal aspect of the city is a goldmine staked by various mafias.

In a June 2015 briefing to the Sindh Apex Committee, the DG of Rangers put Karachi’s extortion through water supply, land grabbing and smuggling of Iranian diesel at Rs230 billion annually.

An International Crisis Group report states that mafias bleed Karachi’s formal economy to the annual tune of $2.9 billion. With such bounties, the hold and rapacity of these mafias is ever-increasing. Given this stark anomaly, those mandated with preventing these criminal activities are seen as stakeholders.

An inkling of these rapacious activities sees eight billion cubic feet of sand and gravel removed illegally each year from Karachi’s seashores and seasonal rivers. This has caused environmental damage like changes in waterways, wildlife extinctions, land erosion and increased flooding.

The tanker mafia extorts Rs22 billion whereas the land mafia dents Karachi’s........

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