KARACHI VICE

Life and Death in a Contested City

The city that emerges from Karachi Vice is, frankly, pretty terrifying. Told through the stories of a handful of protagonists, death and dead bodies pervade the narrative and, sometimes, seem to line every street. Yet this story isn’t as grim as it might be in the face of this death toll, largely due to those age-old human traits of resilience and hope.

As parts of Karachi explode into gang battles and as the arrival of the Taliban further fractures a deeply divided city, we meet determined ambulance driver Safdar, outspoken activist Parveen and hardened journalist Zille, among others. Journalist Samira Shackle skillfully interweaves these stories to cover wide ground, encompassing politics, terrorism, gender and development (or lack of it). Through the lives of her characters, and those of their families, she tells the intricate story of Karachi’s history, its divisions and its different communities. The city emerges as a state within a state, its politics complex and ever-shifting. But so, too, does it speak to wider Pakistan, the many challenges the country faces and the many divisions within its borders. Some of these may not be well understood by outsiders, used to the story of Pakistan as a homeland for Muslim people following the partition of India. Yet these divisions are everywhere, be they between Pashtuns and Sindhis or between the Mohajir (those who moved from India during partition), those who came later from Bangladesh and those who were already there.

It’s almost cliche these days to laud the resilience of those who live within conflict. But, nevertheless, that resilience is on full display here. It’s difficult to comprehend Safdar’s willingness to put himself in the line of fire, or Parveen’s determination not to cave in to the gangs that control her community. They hint at the sheer pervasiveness of danger in the city; the fact that life just goes on.