Karachi crime

Karachi’s crime graph continues to rise. Over 5,000 crimes were reported in June alone, and the rate of street crimes remains especially high, according to a report by the Citizens Police Liaison Committee. Moreover, at least 40 people were killed in murders and other violent crimes, while almost 2,800 motorcycles were stolen, less than 200 of which were recovered by the police. The recovery rate for larger vehicles was slightly better — 80 out of 159 stolen were recovered — but even then, it was quite high. Meanwhile, 1,433 phones were stolen, and only 18 were recovered. Also, the police have a very low rate of case closure, as the theft data suggests. This further erodes faith in law enforcement, and we should note that the CPLC report only deals with registered crimes, meaning that the actual numbers are certainly higher.

The situation demands that Karachi’s political stakeholders — PPP and MQM-P in particular — forsake their political claims against each other and huddle together to devise a way out of the chronic crime crisis in the city. The onus, however, is on the PPP to start acting like the party that controls the city and provincial government and start governing. There is no stronger political statement than policy success, and fixing Karachi will go a long way to silencing critics, whether from opposition parties or regular citizens.

And those solutions need to go beyond stopgaps, such as more police deployment or increased checking, which really only leads to ethnic profiling. We need better, honest police, and measures to address the root causes of crime, including youth truancy and the failure of social services in general. While opposition parties may be squarely responsible for many an ill, the failure of social services rests entirely with the PPP — after 16 years of uninterrupted rule, many of the societal ills that led to Karachi’s crime problems are unaddressed and unchanged.