Karachi is no stranger to unrest and violence. But in recent months its streets have been converted into a frightening battleground: blood has flowed and fires have burned. While sectarian violence rears its ugly head once more, the top political forces in the metropolis scream and point fingers.

Why is the situation deteriorating?

What can be done?

What do the city’s stakeholders have to say?

This month, Newsline took a look at the deadly resurgence of violence that shook and shut down the city in recent weeks and months. Between November 26- 30, these interviews and articles will be published online.

In our main story, “Karachi’s Mean Streets,” to be published on November 30, Sairah Irshad Khan examines the slow, persistent decay that has turned Karachi into a lawless and corrupt city, despite its role as the nation’s commercial centre. A lack of competent and caring leadership, a surfeit of greed, as well a chronic disdain for political cooperation by all power players seem to be at the core of the tragedy.

Here’s a clip from the cover story:

There are the known mafias, those dealing in extortion, drugs, arms, and currently the most bitterly fought-over commodity: land. Battle lines between the Pathan and Mohajir communities in Karachi have long been drawn and turf wars fought. But with new political alliances, migration and changing demographics, the lines have become blurred.

The massacre at the Shershah scrap bazaar was a chilling indicator of Karachi today. Although a relative calm now prevails, with the political representatives of Karachi’s two major parties, the ANP and the MQM continuing to up the ante with inflammatory rhetoric, there is justifiable fear that this is just another temporary lull.

Although the government claims to have identified and arrested some of the perpetrators of the Shershah killings — members of the deceased Rehman’s Dakait’s criminal gang in Lyari, now under the stewardship of another known mobster Baba Ladla — the MQM still remains suspicious of the intentions of its coalition partner, the PPP. It maintains that the latter is working in a “nexus with the ANP,” to destroy the MQM.

In an accompanying story by Ayesha Siddiqa, “Armed to the Teeth,” Newsline takes a detailed look at how Pakistan has become so flush with arms and asks, “Are we destined to live in a world full of weapons?”

Ms Siddiqa writes:

The influx of weapons was also encouraged as a result of lax controls. Since weapons were regarded as a symbol of power, civilian governments had a tendency to reward people with licenses of prohibited bore weapons. A licensed weapon bears the number of the weapon as noted on its license, for inspection purposes when required. This is where Darra manufacturers came in handy. Illegal gun-makers were able to etch any number on their weapon, which meant that multiple weapons would be available in the market, all listed under the same license number.

Newsline also speaks to representatives of the major stakeholders in Karachi and some concerned citizens for their take on their city at war and struggling for peace. In the coming days, look out for interviews with Wasim Akhtar (MNA for the MQM), Jameel Yusuf (founding chief of the CPLC), Javed Jabbar (author, filmmaker and a former senator), Shahi Syed (president of the ANP in Sindh), Zulfiqar Mirza (home minister in Sindh), and the activist organisation Shehri. Mr Javed Jabbar’s interview will be the first to be published on November 26, 2010, where he points out another problem: “Our police system has been fossilised and insulated from not only the world at large but also from the immediate turbulent change that is taking place in Karachi.”

Please join us as we try to better understand the troubled urban centre of Karachi and attempt to uncover some possible paths to help lead it out of its deepening darkness.