Violence case: Pirzada explains reasons behind Karachi imbroglio

Govt’s lawyer believes outsiders are the root of Karachi’s problems.

KARACHI: Karachi’s law and order problems are 60 years old and stem from constant demographic changes, the Sindh Government’s lawyer Abdul Hafeez Pirzada told a five-member Supreme Court bench on Tuesday.

The bench was hearing a suo motu reference about Karachi violence at the Karachi registry. Pirzada explained that the city’s population has grown to 18 million since independence in 1947, and about 2.5 million of them are foreigners.  Meanwhile, only 100,000 are registered under the National Alien Registration Authority (NARA). People from Sudan, Burma, Somalia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Tamil Tigers are all unregistered. Pirzada alleged that most of these people are armed criminals and have own territories as war lords. He conceded that lapses by law enforcement agencies have also led to the situation growing out of control recently.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 31^st,  2011.