KARACHI, May 1: Unlike the rest of the city, an excellent harmony among the activists of different political parties can be seen on the islands where political activities are in their full swing, with residents painting the doors of their houses with the symbols of the political party they admire, party flags flying high on the rooftops and walls daubed with party colours.

The islands are adorned with banners, portraits of candidates and party leaders and even tree trunks and limbs are seen painted with colours of different political party flags.

Witnessing a PPP worker with an MQM member having a cup of tea under the shade of a tree, the trunk of which was painted with PPP colours; a limb of which holding a portrait of PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif and candidate Humayun Khan; overlooking a wall with a large MQM chief Altaf Hussain portrait is a common sight.

“We are all one; we want to see our candidate win, but we never fight with one another and will always respect everyone. Our bond is eternal and way beyond our political affiliations,” said Waqar Ahmed, who was wearing an MQM emblem on his chest. “I love Altaf Hussain, but I respect Bhutto as well,” he swore to Ghous Paak, a reference to the 12th Century Iranian saint, Pir Abdul Qadir Jillani, who is widely revered on the islands as is evident from the green flags on most boats.

The PPP was seen still dominant there when Dawn questioned dozens of male residents and veiled women that who they would prefer to vote this time, and most of them candidly said for the Bhuttos.

Yet, the MQM had a visible presence there. It had a small office there and its workers and supporters were speaking the same Sindhi language as the rival PPP supporters.

Abdul Ghafoor, one of the few well-heeled fishermen who have their own boats, says he will continue to support the PPP candidate in the next elections like most of the 50,000 people living on over a dozen islands off Karachi.

“Look at the tiled floor of our island; it is because of the PPP’s last five-year term. We are living like human beings because of Shaheed Bhutto and his Shaheed daughter,” said Mr Ghafoor, a lanky diabetic wearing shalwar kameez, who was in an expansive mood but was shy of being photographed.

Mr Ghafoor called himself as one of the ‘shrewdest’ men on the tiny island of Bhit, just 20-minute boat ride from Keamari’s jetty and a stone’s throw from Baba Island. Normally, people put the name of both islands under a single title: Baba Bhit.

Bhit is smaller in size and population than Baba. Separated by a creek, combined, they cover six-square-kilometre area near the Karachi Port Trust. Baba has 24,000 residents, bigger in population than Bhit’s16,000, Shamspir’s 5,000 and Salehabad’s 4,500 people, dotted in the Arabian Sea in the same proximity.Most islanders are fishermen.

Overall in Sindh, there are 250 islands having a total population of over 100,000.

Once a tourist spot and main attraction for picnickers, Baba and Bhit islands lost their grandeur long ago and that continued till the end of former military dictator retired Gen Musharraf’s regime. However, residents say they are happy to see they are regaining the lost glory with a few steps, which made their life respectable.

Water supply

“We had no water at all before the previous government, but both the PPP and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement did a wonderful job to ensure us a pipeline that fetches potable water to our island,” says swarthy 63-year-old Haji Hasan, who had a droopy moustache and was wearing white shalwar kameez dotted with dark stains.

He was referring to the water arrangement made during the late Benazir Bhutto’s second government in the 1990s, in which the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board was tasked to provide water in gallons in cheaper prices in Karachi, which was later brought to the island for daily consumption.

Besides, a 14.5-kilometre underwater pipeline had been laid during Nazim Mustafa Kamal’s tenure in Feb 2008, which meets the needs of the island for at least half of the year. In dry months, fishermen pay Rs60 for a 50-gallon container, which is ferried here from the Keamari jetty.

Besides, the islanders have high hopes about a desalination plant being set up in Keamari, which could end their woes for potable water for good.

The islands had already got electricity during the late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s government. However, a visit shows the electricity lines are being upgraded. They avail gas for domestic chores.

Low incidence of crime

This one-kilometre-long Bhit island, where residents say they have lived for at least three centuries, has still cottages with easy-to-climb smaller boundaries, which shows, and later corroborated by the residents, that the incidence of crime there was almost zero, a fact completely in contrast with the huge city just around the corner where felony conveniently matches the high figures of other metropolitan regions of the world.

However, many families have begun to raise their houses vertically as high as triple storeys to accommodate increasing family members because of little space available. They accuse the KPT of occupying almost half of the island’s area and denying residents of using it to have room for the increasing population.

“Our ancestors lived here for more than 300 years and we are much older than the KPT itself, so we have right to get that space for our families instead of the KPT authorities,” said Ashraf Bhatti, a fisherman belonged to the Native Islanders Fishermen Association.

There was a small market area dotted with grocery stores, ice-cream parlours, tandoors (clay ovens), food outlets, tea stalls, etc. A niche space was carved as the play area near the girls’ school for fishermen to play card and board games in between their long sea journeys. There were just two schools for girls and boys up to matriculation and a dispensary with sparse medical help.

No vehicle was seen on those islands, including bicycles. However, teenagers were seen riding small bicycles.

The residents say the obvious reason behind absence of vehicles was that the islands were small in area, thus people could conveniently visit everywhere on foot.

“We don’t produce smoke and noise through vehicles. We have, however, a few tandoors to contaminate air a little,” says Mr Hasan.

The islanders, however, temporarily vacate their houses and migrate to the city in the event of a storm. Last time the islands had been vacated was June 2007 when a deadly thunderstorm uprooted them for a while.

However, they do not like to go to Karachi at any cost for sentimental reasons and because of increasing terrorism.

“We don’t like to leave the island even in event of a thunderstorm, but we do it because the authorities force us and also we do it for the safety of our children,” says Mr Ghafoor.

“Karachi has become such a dangerous city that we can never think of going to live there. We go there to get food and household stuff and come back as soon as it gets. We live here in heaven and never prefer a hell like Karachi.”