BACK from a brief trip to Islamabad and Lahore, I was struck and depressed by the contrast of the two cities to Karachi.

There was a time, not that long ago, when visitors from other towns viewed Karachi enviously as the most modern metropolis in the country. No longer. Now, Karachi is like a poor relative: patronized and pitied, and not fun to be in.

And who can blame people for this view? The truth is that Karachi today is shabby, run down and downright ugly. The streets are dirty and full of vehicles driven by people increasingly rude and bad-tempered in Ramazan. Large, hideous apartment blocks cry out for a coat of paint. Public buildings and boundary walls are defaced by graffiti and peeling posters. Exposed garbage dumps are a regular feature on street corners.

Recently, a young programmer who works in a firm went to Islamabad on a business trip for the first time in his life. He was absolutely bowled over by the clean, wide streets, the landscaped parks, and the well-regulated traffic. Talking to one of his friends on his return, he remarked that cities in the West must resemble our capital.

I remember that as teenagers in the sixties, we used to look down on cousins and friends from other cities, and impress them with visits to the glamorous hot spots. Or so they seemed to us then. But as Pakistan’s biggest and richest city, Karachi was certainly the trend-setter for the rest of the country.

One reason for the city’s current decline is its highly politicized state. Since the mid-eighties, Karachi has been going steadily downhill, although it was hardly heaven on earth earlier. But the MQM’s violent tactics and shady politics drove away both local and foreign capital, as well as federal funding.

Well before that, politicians, bureaucrats and contractors saw the city as a source for enriching themselves. Plots were carved out of planned parks; building permissions were granted to developers in full knowledge that they would not provide for parking or otherwise observe the rules; and maintenance budgets were plundered at will.

All the political parties fighting for the city’s control took turns to burden its bureaucracy with their workers who continue to draw salaries. Bloated and inefficient civic organizations like the Karachi Development Authority now preside over the deterioration of the city.

The devolution plan’ that is President Musharraf’s gift to the city and the nation has further compounded Karachi’s problems. The head nazim (equivalent to the mayor), a member of the Jamaat-e-Islami, is now engaged in a battle on two fronts. On the one hand, he has independent and PPP local nazims who are starved of funds; and on the other, the provincial government is unhappy with the powers he has been given at its expense, and therefore keeps him on short rations.

No matter how well-intentioned, there is no way the system can work in its present form. When it was being debated in Gen Musharraf’s early days, many of us had warned that it was unworkable. But being proved right provides no consolation as Karachi’s plight worsens visibly by the day.

A further problem “ and one that has been with us since partition “ is that Karachi has always been a magnet for those seeking a better life. Wave after wave of economic and political refugees and migrants from abroad as well as other parts of the country have made Karachi their home. Bangladeshis, Biharis, Afghans, Balochs, Punjabis and rural Sindhis have followed the original wave of mohajirs from India who settled here.

Despite generating more revenues for the federal exchequer than the rest of the country combined, Karachi has never been able to persuade Islamabad to allocate it the funds necessary to provide civic amenities to its millions of settlers. This tendency started in Ayub Khan’s days when he saw the city as a hub of opposition to his rule. Bhutto, too, saw it as a stronghold of the religious parties who were allied with other right-wing elements against his government. Nevertheless, during his tenure, Karachi did see some development.

In this sense, Karachi has paid a heavy price for going its own way. While Nawaz Sharif and his brother Shahbaz actively worked to improve large parts of Lahore (specially the Sharif family neighbourhood of Model Town), Benazir Bhutto was too preoccupied with her problems with the MQM and the army to do very much for Karachi.

The result of this combination of federal neglect and local corruption and political infighting is that Karachi now resembles a city caught up in a minor war. In its most recent annual survey of the 130 most liveable cities in the world, the Economist Intelligence Unit has placed Karachi second last (after Dhaka and Lagos). The criteria include security, cleanliness, transport, utilities, educational facilities, and so on. I suppose we should be glad we weren’t the last.

Most residents might be unaware of how far their city is being left behind if they have not travelled recently to Lahore and Islamabad. But the gap is growing progressively wider in every area of urban development. Apart from the efforts of a handful of individuals and NGOs, there is very little happening to make Karachi more liveable. Aside from a few enclaves like Defence Housing Society and Clifton, the city subjects its citizens to a daily survival test. Water and electricity supplies are a chronic mess. The roads resemble areas subjected to heavy bombardment. The few open spaces where our children can play are dusty and woebegone, apart from being under the constant threat of land-grab.

It should be clear to the meanest intelligence that the system has collapsed, and the city is in free fall. Currently, the Sindh governor is from one political party; the chief minister from another; and Karachi’s chief nazim from a third. At various levels of the provincial and city governments are elected and unelected officials from still other parties and groupings. Apart from owing allegiance to different organizations, most of these worthies do their best to further their personal interests.

In this welter of conflicting loyalties and interests, it is small wonder that the citizens are ignored. One does not require an advanced degree in urban planning to understand that a city, like any large and complex organization, needs unity of command to run efficiently. But given the apathy and disinterest in Karachi’s problems at just about every level, we will just have to put up with what passes as governance in Pakistan’s biggest city.