The debate over whether Karachi should be separated from the province of Sindh is one of the oldest in Pakistan. On one side, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) argues that Karachi is the heart of Sindh. On the other side, parties representing the Urdu-speaking Mohajir population, such as the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), argue that Karachi is neglected because it does not have a Sindhi majority.
The MQM views the PPP as a ‘Sindhi party’, even though, till 2008, the PPP had an impressive vote bank in the country’s largest province, Punjab, and currently it is the ruling party in Balochistan and Gilgit-Baltistan, apart from, of course, Sindh.
Karachi’s Mohajir population, whose political support is distributed primarily among the MQM, the Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) and the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), believes the city can only improve if it becomes its own separate province or falls under federal control.
Most political commentators describe this as a conflict between Sindhis and Mohajirs. But this is a simplistic view. It ignores a crucial factor: millions of non-Mohajir residents living in Karachi are likely to oppose separating the city from Sindh. The city’s non-Mohajir groups make up nearly half of the city’s massive population. Their fears and historical experiences explain why plans to create a separate Karachi province will face stiff resistance. It is not Sindhis alone who are resisting the call for separating Karachi from Sindh.
