Port Qasim Industrial Area: Increasing car theft cases trouble foreign manufacturers

National Highway’s security remains in shambles.

KARACHI: Foreign carmakers in Port Qasim Industrial Area Karachi are perturbed with the rising incidents of snatching of unregistered cars. As soon as newly made cars leave factories, car snatchers take the vehicles on gunpoint within few kilometers of the area around the National Highway.

Port Qasim Industrial Area, an important zone in the outskirts of Karachi, is home to numerous multinationals, but its security — especially on the National Highway that connects Karachi to other parts of country — is in shambles.

Despite repeated assurances by the government, the law and order situation on the National Highway has not improved which is a serious concern for industrialists and investors.

“All industries, especially carmakers, are restless owing to continuous incidents of snatching of new cars as soon as they leave the factory,” a senior official of a Japanese carmaker told The Express Tribune.

“This will certainly affect new investments because our foreign workers have also been looted at gun point in the same vicinity. This is dangerous because all foreigners send such reports to their embassies and this could affect foreign investment in the country,” he said. Our company bears all the losses on the incidents of snatching of unregistered cars, he added.

National Highway is the only access route to the Port Qasim Industrial Area, which has made things worse for these industries. Few months ago after dismal security on this road, industrialists had asked the government to start a ferry service from Port Qasim to Karachi so that people can use both routes — road and sea.

The situation is so tense that executives do not wear business suits and ties while driving owing to the fear of mobile and car snatching. People are often looted at gun point during traffic jams – a daily routine on the National Highway in peak hours.

Executives prefer to leave their factories before 3 pm to reach home safely. Local industrialists pointed out that foreign investors are not at all likely to invest during such unstable conditions in the city.

When The Express Tribune contacted Ahmed Chinoy, Chief of the Citizen Police Liaison Committee (CPLC), he said “industries should report such incidents to us and we will increase police patrolling on the National Highway”.

Industrialists are so fearful that they do not register FIR. Moreover, the government has failed, especially in the last six months, to convince businessmen that their life would be protected if they file cases against kidnappers and extortionists.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 14^th, 2011.