Urban safety declines
Karachi has a rock-bottom reputation as a city that is unsafe to live and work in
Karachi has a rock-bottom reputation as a city that is unsafe to live and work in. As recently as last August the Economist Intelligence Unit rated Karachi as one of the least-livable cities in the world, placing it at 134 out of 140. The City of Blights is ranked above Port Moresby, Dhaka, Tripoli, Lagos and Damascus. Crime is endemic and epidemic and not a day passes without numerous cases of phone snatching, mugging, car hijacking and daylight robbery, often with accompanying violence. No area can be considered truly safe and that includes so-called ‘up-scale’ parts of the city that were once havens in a violent metropolis.
Now a meeting of the Sindh Assembly committee on home affairs has expressed its concern over rising levels of street crime and recommended the creation of a ‘Safe City Authority’ with immediate effect. This is easier said than done. The home secretary said that there were about 10,000 closed circuit TV cameras ‘being installed’ across the city — he did not say they were already installed and operational. The meeting was aware of ‘certain hurdles’ to the implementation of a ‘safe city’ project. The Sindh chief secretary is aware of these hurdles.
It ought to be a matter of amazement that there are any hurdles at all to such a basic improvement in the overall quality of life as the installation of security cameras. The home secretary went on to say that the IT department and the police alone were unable to implement the project and suggested that ‘citizens should contribute to the betterment of the city’, citing London where there are over 400,000 CCTV cameras. London also has an effective and uncorrupt police force, a generally law-abiding population and sufficient resources to ensure that 400,000 cameras are not mere decoration pieces. Beyond acknowledging that a ‘Safe City Authority’ was desirable nothing of note was achieved by a meeting that drifted into the future of the IG. Karachi is no safer for the contribution made by these anodyne irrelevancies. We expect no early improvement.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 4th, 2017.
Now a meeting of the Sindh Assembly committee on home affairs has expressed its concern over rising levels of street crime and recommended the creation of a ‘Safe City Authority’ with immediate effect. This is easier said than done. The home secretary said that there were about 10,000 closed circuit TV cameras ‘being installed’ across the city — he did not say they were already installed and operational. The meeting was aware of ‘certain hurdles’ to the implementation of a ‘safe city’ project. The Sindh chief secretary is aware of these hurdles.
It ought to be a matter of amazement that there are any hurdles at all to such a basic improvement in the overall quality of life as the installation of security cameras. The home secretary went on to say that the IT department and the police alone were unable to implement the project and suggested that ‘citizens should contribute to the betterment of the city’, citing London where there are over 400,000 CCTV cameras. London also has an effective and uncorrupt police force, a generally law-abiding population and sufficient resources to ensure that 400,000 cameras are not mere decoration pieces. Beyond acknowledging that a ‘Safe City Authority’ was desirable nothing of note was achieved by a meeting that drifted into the future of the IG. Karachi is no safer for the contribution made by these anodyne irrelevancies. We expect no early improvement.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 4th, 2017.