Ghanashyam often tells a story about Karachi and his favourite sweet called Karachi halwa. He always loved this colourful chewy, sugary sweet filled with dry fruits. When we landed in Karachi for the first time, it was his ambition to try out his favourite sweet in its place of origin.
During our first evening, while having dinner with some local friends, Ghanashyam casually asked about Karachi halwa and mentioned that it was his favourite sweet. To our surprise, none of the locals had heard of the sweet! “Perhaps they did not like sweets,” we thought later. The next day was the same; no one had heard of Karachi halwa.
Someone then suggested a visit to Karachi’s famous sweets shop to look for the famous Karachi halwa. The day after, some of our friends took Ghanashyam to the famous sweets shop. “If it sells in Karachi, you’ll certainly find it here,” one of them said as they entered the shop. Ghanashyam looked at the first display of sweets. There was no Karachi halwa. The same for the second display! Somewhat perplexed, he looked helplessly at his friends. “There’s another display, Bhai. Look at that one too. You may find it there,” said the friend. He was lucky the third time. There, at the end, was a tray filled with delicious-looking Karachi halwa! He looked at his friends triumphantly and pointing to the tray, said happily, “See, this is Karachi Halwa!”
The friends came closer to look at the sought-after delicacy. Instead of being impressed, they burst out laughing. “This?!” asked one of them, adding “This is Bombay halwa!” The sweet that we had been enjoying as Karachi halwa was called Bombay halwa in Karachi!
So, where did the halwa originate? Karachi or Mumbai (Bombay)? The word “halwa” is derived from the Arabic word “Haluw” or “sweet”. In Arabic, it is also used for “pretty”, for a pretty girl or a pretty sight. This would indicate that Karachi halwa’s origin may be outside the boundaries of undivided India, perhaps Iran or the Arab world or even Türkiye. Traditional wisdom indicates, however, that the sweet originated in Karachi.
We were excited to visit Karachi for the first time. Our first drive out of the hotel took us to Clifton, the upscale and affluent neighbourhood of Karachi. The driver pointed out the Teen Talwar (Three Swords) monument and explained that the former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had got it built as part of a plan to beautify Karachi. Listening to our bemused comments about the somewhat odd-looking structure, he explained that the monument represented the then symbol of Bhutto’s political party, the PPP.
Immediately thereafter, the driver pointed towards Bhutto’s house, 70 Clifton. “This house is a landmark in Clifton,” explained the driver. Indeed, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto addressed many press conferences at 70 Clifton. His daughter, the late prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, and her mother, Nusrat Bhutto, were kept under house arrest for three years in this house. The bungalow was declared a “sub-jail” at the time. The Movement for the Restoration of Democracy, the longest-serving political alliance, was formed there in January 1981. Benazir addressed her famous press conference on her return to Pakistan in 1986 also from the same house and lived there before moving to Bilawal House.
Asif Ali Zardari, her husband, built Bilawal House, and named it after their first son, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari. 70 Clifton became the house of Benazir’s brother, Mir Murtaza Bhutto, and his family, which still lives there. On 20 September 1996, Mir Murtaza Bhutto was killed in a police encounter near his house. Though Benazir mourned her brother openly, this did not prevent accusations by the Opposition and others. Benazir’s government was dismissed by President Farooq Leghari following “months of domestic turmoil and dismal performance of the economy”. Murtaza’s death and corruption were also important factors. Zardari was indicted for Murtaza’s murder. He was acquitted in 2008.
70 Clifton is no longer the centre of PPP politics which has shifted, not far, to Bilawal House. At the time of our first visit to Karachi, these events were still very much a part of contemporary politics, having occurred in the recent past.
We realised that 70 Clifton was not the only place of interest in the neighbourhood when the driver pointed in the general direction to his left and announced that the infamous Dawood Ibrahim lived there. The head of the mafia-style crime syndicate D-Company is wanted in India for charges that range from terrorist acts, murder and drug trafficking to targeted killings and extortion. Dawood’s origins are in Mumbai, where he founded the D-Company in the 1970s. He was living in the poshest part of Karachi, and even an ordinary driver was aware of his address. The Pakistani authorities, however, denied knowledge of Dawood’s whereabouts!
Finally, under pressure from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), Pakistan issued a notification on 18 August 2020 listing 259 UN-designated terrorists and eighty-nine terror entities/ organizations. The list included the name of Dawood Ibrahim, with his different aliases, five passport numbers (including old and revoked Indian passports) and the address of his three properties in Karachi. This list was issued ahead of the FATF review of Pakistan’s compliance in fighting terror and money laundering and to demonstrate Pakistani commitment to fighting terrorism. Pakistan’s move was aimed at impressing FATF and avoiding being moved from FATF’s “grey list” to the dreaded “blacklist”. Pakistan had been on the “grey list” since June 2018. When the Pakistani notification was issued, FATF was due to make a final decision on whether Pakistan should be downgraded to the “blacklist” or be made a “high-risk jurisdiction”. However, soon after issuing the list, Pakistan denied any acknowledgement on its part of Dawood Ibrahim’s presence on its soil.
At the time we lived in Pakistan, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) was a strong force in Karachi. Its origins lay in the All Pakistan Mohajir Student Organisation (APMSO), the student organization founded by Altaf Hussain in 1978. APMSO evolved into the Mohajir Qaumi Movement in 1984. Its support base consisted of the Urdu-speaking immigrant community that had migrated to Pakistan from India at the time of Partition. The MQM replaced the word “Mohajir” (immigrant or refugee) with “Muttahida” (united) in 1997. It describes itself as a secular political party.
Our driver in Karachi seemed to be a staunch supporter of the MQM. He told us that the Movement was invincible in Karachi. “If they put up a lamp post as their candidate, it would win in Karachi,” he claimed. Indeed, the MQM was the dominant political force and had strong mobilising capability in Karachi in those days.
Karachi was the first capital of Pakistan in 1947. It remained so till 1959, when it moved to Rawalpindi and finally to Islamabad in 1967. Most of the refugees from Punjab who moved from India to Pakistan in 1947, settled in west Punjab, across the border. The Muslim refugees from the rest of India, settled largely in Sindh. Being the capital of Pakistan, as well as its commercial port city, Karachi drew the newly arrived immigrants like a magnet. Many of the Urdu-speaking Mohajirs came to occupy positions in the bureaucracy,
Excerpted with permission from An Indian Woman in Islamabad: 1997-2000, Ruchi Ghanashyam, Penguin India.
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