“10 million population in Karachi is living in grey area; and does not come under any census or counting” Mohammad Toheed, an urban planner

Karachi: The urban planner at the IBA University Mohammad Toheed has said that when infrastructure fails, state legitimacy collapses, and non-state actors fill the gap. The climate shocks like floods and heat waves further deepen these fractures. Mr. Toheed gave these remarks as the keynote speaker at the roundtable conference on “climate-induced social fragmentation and its link with violent extremism” held at Press Information Department Karachi today. The roundtable conference was attended by the students, academia, media persons and experts. 

Expressing concern on the impending threats of climate-induced fragmentation, Mr. Toheed said that violent extremism thrived where governance failed. “The social cohesion is not ensured through socio-political and spatial measures; the climate friendly initiatives are equally required to put check on fragmentation and conflicts in society”, he added.

He further said that climate induced displacement and migration caused violence where the infrastructure was poor, uneven distribution of water remained in routine and income inequalities were deeply entrenched. “The cities, communities and infrastructure are a complex cobweb of the urban societies like Karachi which require balance among them to avoid violence, chaos and conflict”, he maintained.

Emphasizing upon the urgent town planning of Karachi city, he said that there should be a growing realization that Karachi was also a coastal city which bore the brunt of forced migrations and displacement. “Karachi city is left at the mercy of developers and builders after the 1990s housing scheme of KDA”. The areas like Dalmia, Ali Hassan Village, Ibraheem Hyderi and others were sheltered by the displaced people of coastal areas. He also referred to the Katchi Abadi “Sindhabad” which was home to nearly 150000 flood affected people with no water and electricity. 

While concluding his remarks, Mohammad Toheed urged on an implementation of the local government system with the climate change mandate vested in the domain of the mayor.    

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               DGPR PID Karachi, Mrs. Irum Tanweer said that the seminars on the themes like climate-induced fragmentation were the need of an hour. She urged on the coordinated efforts among all the relevant stakeholders to promote resilient society.

                                                                                                              

The roundtable conference was one of the series of seminars, organized by Press Information Department Karachi in collaboration with PID Media Cell to Counter Violent Extremism Islamabad. Earlier, the seminars were conducted in IBA city campus Karachi and Salim Habib University Karachi. The team of PID Media Cell to Counter Violent Extremism Islamabad has organized such seminars in the capital city, Peshawar, Faisalabad and would conduct in Lahore, Multan and other parts of the country with the broader objective to understand the evolving landscape of digital media and its corresponding repercussions such as fake news, disinformation and violent extremism.