Karachi killings

Karachi has learnt to live with violence. It knows what it means to live under the shadow of extortion rackets and organised criminal syndicates. That is perhaps the city's greatest tragedy. The alleged abduction, torture and murder of 25-year-old entrepreneur Mir Raza Ali, owner of a dessert chain, and the fatal shooting of retired banker Samiuddin Rehmani inside his Azizabad home within days of each other are a damning indictment of the state's failure to protect its citizens.

For years, Karachiites have been told that the city is safer, that crime is under control and that law enforcement has dismantled major criminal groups. Yet the headlines tell a different story. Authorities have become adept at chasing gunmen after they pull the trigger but far less effective at dismantling the criminal ecosystems that produce them. While individual suspects may occasionally be arrested, the criminal enterprises behind them continue to regenerate because the networks that finance, arm and protect them remain largely intact. That failure demands scrutiny. Such crimes are not committed in the shadows. They require planning, surveillance, logistics and the confidence that those responsible can evade capture. Such confidence does not emerge in a vacuum. It grows when criminal networks no longer fear the consequences of their actions.

Karachi is Pakistan's economic heartbeat. No financial centre can thrive when entrepreneurs fear being kidnapped. Investment follows stability, not uncertainty. Businesses expand where the rule of law is respected, not where organised criminals dictate the limits of public safety. The state's first obligation is to safeguard the lives of its citizens and it must demonstrate that it can break the grip of the mafias that continue to hold the city hostage. Karachi's resilience has been romanticised for far too long now.