More than half the criminals arrested for their involvement in street crimes in Karachi during 2017 and 2018 have been acquitted by courts, says a report of the law department submitted to the Sindh Assembly. This has emboldened criminals who after coming out of prison act with renewed zeal and continue to pursue their vocation without much fear of the consequences knowing well that even if they are arrested they will most likely soon walk free.
Laws are effective if they act as a deterrent for criminals. The surge in street crimes is also being attributed to the shift in the police’s focus on controlling major crimes like kidnapping for ransom, extortion and robbery. The city has witnessed a notable drop in these crimes from 2019 to 2020. Unfortunately, the success achieved on one front has been more than neutralised by failures on the other front; the other aspect of instilling confidence in people as to feeling secure about their lives and belongings is equally of vital importance.
Figures collected by the Citizens-Police Liaison Committee reveal that in 2020, as many as 1,722 four-wheelers and 37,707 two-wheelers were either hijacked or stolen while these figures stood at 1,699 and 30,506, respectively, a year before. In 2019, about 20,978 incidents of mobile snatching were reported which climbed to 21,558 in 2020. Observers, however, maintain that this figure is understated as many incidents of mobile snatching go unreported. What makes the situation worse is the low rate of recovery of hijacked vehicles and snatched mobiles. Of the 3,421 four-wheelers hijacked or stolen in 2019 and 2020, only 940 have been recorded as recovered. Out of the 68,213 motorbikes lost to criminals in the same period, a mere 6,400 have been restored to their owners. Only 5,790 mobiles out of the 42,536 snatched could be recovered.
The Karachi police chief says the acquittals are largely due to faulty police investigation. Slack implementation of laws is benefiting criminals. Have people been left to fend for themselves? These are perilous times.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 13th, 2021.
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