The City of Karachi has transformed itself into a Free Port. One is not talking about the economic opportunities available to investment-oriented local and foreign businessmen. One is not dilating about the relaxation and reduction of import and custom duties. One is not articulating about the easy availability of all kinds of domestic and foreign goods and products. This is a different type of a free port.

The City of Karachi is a free port for the dacoits to freely roam around at will, to freely organize themselves into gangs, and to freely barge into residences and factories of honest-to-goodness denizens and literally strip them of all belongings. It is in this free port, that the kidnappers freely stalk their victims, freely pick them up from busy places or offices, and freely negotiate ransom which they freely pick up, unhindered, from designated spots. It is in this free port that the terrorists freely move around in cars and other vehicles, freely open fire on innocent citizens in Mosques and Imambargahs, on avenues and lanes, in abodes and places of work, and freely zoom away nonchalantly or under the cover of their nerve-racking fusillade.

The City of Karachi is a free port for utility personnel too. It is a free port for those over-staffed, over-paid, under-worked, and highly-unionized employees of the infra-structure providing corporations. The phone person, the water man, the gas guy, and the electric somebody. all enjoy the benefits and privileges of this free port. They relish in the freedom to use their well-protected discretionary powers to play havoc with the lives of the 10 million plus inhabitants residing in this port city. There is no one strong enough to tame them, to tackle them, or to confront them, because it is a free port, because political parties are their patrons, because these employees, and especially their leaders, are indomitable, and because "power" is the almighty currency. These workers and staff of the utility companies have turned this once fascinating, lively, and enchanting city into a desolate place where the citizens always seek and crave for water, gas, electricity, and a working telephone.

The City of Karachi is a free port for those anti-social elements who in their pseudo-artistic way deface the whole facade of this city with slogans, advertisements, and other gobbledygook gibberish. The city is turned into an inanimate message-house, with unprofessionally written and amateurishly calligraphed grotesque style of communication. These messages are splashed all over the length and breadth of this megapolis. Since it is a free port, naturally they can do anything with a brush, stencil, or a can of spray paint.

The City of Karachi is a free port for the beggars, vagrants, and the poverty-stricken wretched destitute. They are clad in flea infested, smelly, and dirty rags. They are drug addicts, they are diseased, and they present a pathetic outlook. They freely flock from all parts of this country to "better their fortunes" or to take full advantage of the altruistic nature of the populace, especially during the holy month of Ramadhan. They freely make one’s life miserable with their cacophonous intonations promising divine salvation from all sins if the Believers would just freely part with their money and give them alms. The scene is more menacing at traffic stops, shopping centers, and outside the Mosques on Fridays or at Eid time. Since this is a free port, these beggars and their ilk are free to harass, annoy, and intimidate the residents of this city.

The City of Karachi is a free port for those students who in schools and colleges have freely learned how to wield a Kalashnikov but are unable to understand mathematics or the Law of Gravity. They have freely mastered the intricate art of cheating instead of imbibing the classic literature knowledge of Shakespeare or Ghalib. They are deficient in partaking the joys of understanding chemistry and biology, but adept at organizing strikes and teacher intimidation strategies. They have freely converted the sanctuary of hostels into dangerous ammunition depots. In the process. the enfant-terribles have freely made a mockery of the already worthless education system and have freely put the teachers, educationists, and the parents into a lot of anguish and pain.

The City of Karachi is a free port for the law-enforcers. The police, whether they may be the corner sepoys, the traffic constables, or the joy riding mobile force, freely protect the law-breakers while freely frightening the law-abiders. The police force is freely used to guard the nationalized banks, who can anyway afford to have their own security apparatus. The police is also freely used to protect the embassies and consulates, who, nevertheless, do not trust the local force and prefer to hire on their own, the private security agencies. The police force is freely used to watch the opposition politicians, monitoring the coming ins and going outs with eagle-eyed attention. No wonder the burglars never, ever, commit dacoities in any opposition politician’s residence. They are well protected, courtesy of the local Karachi police. Has anyone heard or read about any burglaries at these places ? Never. No dacoit dares to. The police is also freely used on VIP duties. Every VIP from the petty to the high and mighty is freely protected by a plethora of cops who are on top priority duty to protect these VIPs from whom, nobody knows. The presence of the President or the Prime Minister in Karachi tends to keep the city safe from the police because they are freely being used to protect these VIPs.

The City of Karachi is a free port for the labor, for the workers, and for the union leaders. They are free to absent themselves from the place of duty, without notice or intimation. they are free to give less than the standard efficiency because they are least bit concerned about the value of machines, more so in these days where the yen and mark are reaching the skies. They don’t give two hoots about the budgeted targets of the management, or of the cost of inputs. They are pretty well secured in their jobs. Furthermore, they freely get a morale-boost from people such as professional union leaders or disgruntled third rate politicos who do not give a damn about the effects of their own acerbic verbosity. The union leaders are free to attack industrialists with a designed vengeance. Ironically, the industrialists are free to provide jobs to the very people who deride them so venomously. The labor leaders are free to preach sermons of violence. They are free to advocate non-cooperation with the employers. All these tactics are, in fact, laced with spite and hatred, and are, in actuality, just oratories bordering on the precipice of absurdity. Industrialization suffers. Privatization plans are put on the back-burner. Foreign investors hold back. Unions do not care, Workers retrenched. Labor unrest is the result. Unions love it. This is freedom.

The City of Karachi is a free port for the processionists. It is an everyday routine here to have a procession freely march from Regal Chowk. (The owners of Odeon Cinema protest that it should actually be called Odeon Chowk). The banners, placards, and the full-throated slogans vividly and freely proclaim the theme of the protest march. The roads are freely blocked, the traffic is freely diverted, and the activities of the business establishments are freely brought to a standstill. Amazingly, the processionists have a lot of free time at their disposal to take part in these processions, protests, and demonstrations. How many man-hours (person-hours ?) are freely wasted in this process, no one knows. Who cares ?

The City of Karachi is a free port for those elements who have freely put this City of Lights (even though power outage is always a chronic problem) in a perpetual state of turmoil. It has transformed itself from being the center of industrial activity, from being the citadel of business hustle-bustle, from being the symbol of urban settlement and livelihood, into a frightening, grisly, and tense community of fearful, paranoid, and distressed citizens.

The City of Karachi is a free port. It is also in a state of siege. That too in this era of democracy. This is supposed to be an age of serenity, an eon of prosperity, a time of hope. Unfortunately, the city of Karachi is in a paradoxical position. On the one hand, it is a free port, while on the other hand, it resembles Mogadishu, Port-au-Prince, and Kabul all rolled in one. This, therefore, is the prevailing environment of Karachi. These free actions have contributed towards a resultant atmosphere of a macabre, moribund, and melancholy state. The citizens of this city are freely killed, aliens are freely murdered, life and property is now freely a hostage to the enemies of this megalopolis.

The Karachiites, once considered the privileged ones, have resigned themselves to the fact that Karachi has been sacrificed. It has been sacrificed like a virginal maiden in an evil and vicious ritual at the altar of Satan. A ritual so profane that it leaves the innocent damsel lying in a semi death-like motion ravaged by demonic rogues, raped by devilish monsters, and forever ruined by fiendish ogres. Is this the destiny of Karachi ? One is, obviously, FREE to contemplate !