Travels in a Dervish Cloak by Isambard Wilkinson

Author:Isambard Wilkinson [Isambard Wilkinson]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781780600871
Publisher: Eland Publishing
Published: 2017-03-17T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

The Real Pakistan

DISEMBARKING FROM AN AIRCRAFT on to the tarmac at Karachi airport, I stepped into thick soupy air, which, spiced with a fishy, sulphurous tang, conjured up the sea and industrial pollution.

Karachi, a mega-city of roughly twenty million souls, sits in a perpetual fug of humidity. It’s a fervid, jostling port-city; Pakistan’s commercial hub. It lost its status as the country’s capital in the 1960s when a military ruler, Ayub Khan, transferred the title to cooler, safer Islamabad, nearer to the centre of Punjabi feudal hegemony and army headquarters.

In Karachi riots followed frequent ‘load shedding’ or power cuts; traffic accidents led to outbreaks of ethnic violence; people were electrocuted when monsoon rains flooded poorly drained streets; few paid utility bills; the rich pulled strings to take delivery of water. Street crime was so rife that carrying two wallets and two mobiles, one to hand over to robbers, another to keep hidden, was the norm.

The international hotel where I was staying had long been corralled behind concrete fortifications because of the threat of Islamist terrorist attacks. I ran the gauntlet of x-ray machines, security pat-downs and barriers and made it up to my room. Checking my phone, I found a contact had texted me a dinner invitation for that evening.

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