Policy regarding Karachi Unrest
February 2013, Rabi-ul Awwal 1434 AH

Hizb ut Tahrir / Wilayah Pakistan has issued the following Publicized Policy Position (PPP) over the continual upheavals in Karachi, the world's third largest city in population.

A. PREAMBLE: Karachi is potentially a political, ideological and economic powerhouse, deprived of its proper contribution through the divisive policies of successive American agent rulers.

Karachi with a population of over twenty million is the world's third largest city, Pakistan's largest city, a sea port and former capital. Almost one out of every ten Pakistanis is from Karachi. Karachi's population contains Muslims of all ethnic backgrounds found in Pakistan. There are more Pashtun Muslims in Karachi than in Peshawar or Kabul. There are also many Balochi and Punjabi Muslims. Karachi's largest population is that of the Muhajir, Urdu-speaking Muslims, who migrated at the time of the partition of the Indian Subcontinent to Pakistan from the northern Muslim areas of India. These Urdu-speaking Muslims were important pillars of the Islamic rule over the Indian subcontinent for over half a millennium and a cradle for the resistance to the British occupation for nearly two hundred years. Thus Muslims of Karachi not only have natural connections to all areas of Pakistan, they also have connections to Muslims in India. As such, Karachi is a natural source of support for Pakistan, politically and ideologically. Karachi is a seaport, which connects the region to the Muslim Lands of the Middle East, and is an essential economic lifeline for all the regions of Pakistan. It has one third of all of Pakistan's industry with a vibrant and diverse economic profile. However, rather than allowing harmony in Karachi on the basis of the great unifying force of Islam, so it can naturally contribute and steer the entire region, successive agent rulers have nurtured ethnic and sectarian division in the city, crippling it with continuous strife. Despite all what the rulers have done, Karachi has always played an important role in movements and initiatives that were critical for Muslims in the region, from the wars with India, to the movements for Islamic awareness, to disaster relief efforts and charitable works in general.

B. POLITICAL CONSIDERATIONS: Crippling Karachi through Democracy

B1. Democracy in reality only secures the interests of those in power, as they decide what is right and wrong for everyone else. So, on the one hand, it leaves the entire population in neglect, immersed in problems. On the other hand, it gives those in power protection for their usurping of the rights of others or other criminal actions. In Karachi, criminal elements and gangs enjoy state protection through political patronage. This patronage comes in the form of influence over state machinery, like police and judiciary, and writing laws in the assemblies and issuing executive orders. Thus democracy encourages a nexuses of powerful interest groups and state legislatures and government machinery. So it is no surprise that criminals operate openly and with impunity in Karachi.

B2. The need for people to group together, especially ethnic minorities, is also a trait common in democracy because the needs of the majority factions are given preference over the minorities. These ethnic groups fight with other groups for rights and a share of the state's attention and revenues. This encourages and fans animosity between different citizens of the state consolidating divisions amongst the society. And Karachi has been burning in the fires of ethnic rivalry for decades.

B3. America and its agents within Pakistan's military and political leadership ensure that Karachi burns in constant fires of rivalry. They not only secure the current colonialist, democratic system, they promote the creation of organizations on ethnicity through direct contact. In Karachi, the American consulate has in particular played a role in fueling ethnic fires as far as field as Baluchistan, using ethnic groupings found in Karachi. It has even made preparations for expanding its war of terror to Karachi. Thus, the colonialists create chaos within the city and then use it as a cover to selectively end threats to their interests, such as sincere politicians who raise their voices against America's war on Muslims.

C. LEGAL INJUCTIONS: Ending strife, consolidating Karachi's diverse population

C1. Like the troubled and divided people of Yathrib that only saw peace and prosperity when they embraced Islam and became Madinah, the first Islamic State, Karachi will only ever know of peace under Islam. Islam is what is common to all Muslims, regardless of their ethnicity or school of thought and the Shariah is the law that is based on their Aqeedah, Islam. It is the commands and prohibitions, as revealed in the Quran and the Sunnah. The Khilafah "Caliphate" does not favor the ruler over the ruled, or one ethnic group or school of thought over another. Unlike democracy, which focuses development in the seats of power in the regions, where the rulers themselves reside or where those upon whom the rulers depend for support live, the Khilafah "Caliphate" will look after the affairs of the entire society in a manner it deserves. So it will not only ensure the development of Karachi and other neglected large cities, but also it will ensure the development of the smaller cities and villages, preventing the need for continual migration to the larger cities for essentials such as health and education, leading to huge overcrowding.

As Hizb ut Tahrir has declared in its Introduction to the Constitution, Article 7, "The State implements the Islamic Shari'ah upon all those who hold the Islamic citizenship, with no difference between Muslims and non-Muslims as follows: (a) All the rules of Islam will be implemented upon the Muslims without any exception. (b) The non-Muslims will be allowed to follow their beliefs and worships within the scope of the general system."

C2. In the Khilafah "Caliphate", political parties will be established on the basis of Islam and not on ethnic grounds. Political parties and individuals as well as government officials will not be allowed to have connections with foreign diplomats. All embassies and consulates of hostile kafir countries would be closed.

As Hizb ut Tahrir has declared in its Introduction to the Constitution, Article 21, "The Muslims have the right to establish political parties in order to account the rulers or to reach the rule through the Ummah on the condition that their basis is the Islamic ‘Aqeedah and that the rules they adopt are Shari'ah rules. The formation of a party does not require any permission. Any group formed on an un-Islamic basis is prohibited."

C3. The dominate atmosphere within society will be that which is common to all the ethnic groupings of Pakistan, Islam. The education system, the media, the address of the rulers and those who account them will all be embedded firmly in the Islamic Aqeedah, which will naturally eliminate narrow ethnic bigotry. Moreover, although other regional languages will be used, the official language of the state will be Arabic only, which is the language of Islam, the Quran, the Messenger of Allah and the legal language. This will end decisively the tensions over language that have existed in Pakistan since its founding. In its Introduction to the Constitution, Article 8, Hizb ut Tahrir has adopted, "The Arabic language is exclusively the language of Islam and it is the only language used by the State."

Note: Please refer to the following articles of Hizb ut Tahrir's Introduction to the Constitution for the complete evidences from Quran and Sunnah: 7, 8 and 21.

D. POLICY: Raising Karachi to its full potential

D1. The comprehensive implementation of Islam which is what is common to all Muslims, will bring harmony amongst the people and allow Karachi to flourish under Islam, freed from ethnic rivalry and neglect. The Khilafah "Caliphate" will look after the affairs of all the people, throughout the country, without discrimination according to their race, religion, school of thought or gender.

D2. Political parties will be allowed as long as they adhere to Islam and thus do not sow the seeds of tension on lines of ethnicity. Their members will not be in contact with foreign diplomats and the diplomatic missions of hostile countries will be closed.