FIR cycle

For decades, the public sphere of Karachi has been deemed inaccessible to a large portion of the population. This has materialised through physical barriers, traffic congestion, lack of amenities and an inaccessible transportation system. Added to this list is yet another barrier which the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) has recently been attempting to abolish: charged parking in public spaces.

According to a KMC notification, parking fees was discontinued at 32 designated locations across 25 towns starting from July 1. Recently, a KMC spokesperson announced that the first FIR was registered against lawbreakers collecting parking fees and those involved were also apprehended.

The decision to abolish parking fees was part of a bigger move to end charged parking at 45 out of 106 sites controlled by KMC. However, this is not the first time a plan such as this has been announced by the Sindh government. Since 2021, several attempts have been made to launch 'massive' crackdowns against the parking mafia — only for all of them to crash and burn. The first case of 2021 was lodged against a self-proclaimed contractor in Saddar. And in a near-exact replay of events, in 2023, Sindh government ordered the registration of FIRs yet again. Parking spaces were set to be auctioned off only to be awarded without any auction in the end.

Bans and regulations in Karachi simply seem to be an exercise on revisiting the past, only to reach the same conclusion every time. There is constant noise and palaver, but rarely does the city get to witness enduring change. Unless a slew of arrests is made consecutively over a lengthy period of time, this ban risks succumbing to the same fate as previous ones. KMC must heighten their surveillance and enforcement efforts to ensure compliance and deter unyielding violations.