For businesses and citizens of Karachi, crime conquers all

Capital flight from city is a direct result of rising instability.

KARACHI: Karachi is under siege. Every day one hears of someone close to them being robbed, being coerced, being kidnapped or being shot and killed. People who lived in Karachi in the 70s and 80s, but left to live abroad or in another city, would not recognise Karachi if they were to visit it today.

I remember that we had never heard of no-go areas till two decades ago. We were never afraid of going out of our homes in the dark, never worried of walking in the park or visiting restaurants. Cold drink shops and paan stalls would be open, doing robust business late into the night.

Today, our beloved city is captive of a terror campaign: people are afraid to leave their homes at night, teenagers are told not to stay out after dark and the lives of its citizens is filled with constant panic and fear.



The reality on the ground is getting scarier and more out of control by the day. The worst and most worrying statistic concerns citizens being killed in Karachi. From a low of 88 reported killings per year on average between 1999 and 2003, the number of homicides has mushroomed and continues to grow at an uncontrollable rate. Some of our most loved and respected citizens have been killed in the last few years. Using 2005 as the base year, killing by gunshot has increased at a rate of +50% per year over the last seven years; 2012 alone saw 2,172 total reported killings, which comes to one person being killed every four hours that year!

Looking at other crimes, like car and motorbike theft or cell phone snatching, data is just as shocking: in 2012, a car and motorbike was stolen or snatched every 23 and 12 minutes respectively. Kidnapping for ransom, one of the most despicable crimes, has also increased over the last few years. For the first time in our history, kidnapping incidents reporting to the Citizens Police Liaison Committee (CPLC) in Karachi passed the 100 per year mark in 2010, and have remained above 100 since then.



Total incidents of kidnapping in the last six years have increased by a whopping 140% versus the total incidents of kidnapping in the previous 17 years. To be fair, the CPLC has an amazing 98.3% success rate in solving kidnapping cases, with over 248 gangs busted in the last 23 years. On 4-wheel automobile thefts, they have a success rate of 45% on recovery, while that drops to 11% for motorbike thefts.

There is one thing that is common in every crime that takes place in Karachi. All criminals have access to a weapon. If guns were not in the possession of the criminals, they would not be able to carry out their crimes. No one would hand over their car or mobile phone to a person who simply walked up to them and demanded it without brandishing a gun? They would only tell the person to get lost.

It is the gun which the robber taps on our window that does the damage: it scares us, and we end up handing over our cars and other valuables. Similarly, no kidnapping or mugging incident can ever be successful if criminals do not have access to guns and armaments.

As citizens and businesspersons based out of Karachi, we need to ask how long this can go on for. How long should the residents of Karachi allow this to continue? Despite continuous assurances from our government officials and security agencies, nothing concrete has ever happened. The time has come when civil society must say that enough is enough and take action.

The single most potent strategy to fight the war against crime is to de-weaponise Karachi. Every Tom, Dick and Harry should not be allowed to carry a gun. Even licenced weapons must not include automatic and sophisticated weapons. Strong systems of controlling and checking the proliferation of weapons, as well as strict punishments for breaking the law should be imposed. We need to have an ongoing programme for people who wish to surrender weapons and sell them back at market prices. We need to create weapon-free areas, especially in schools, colleges and hospitals. We need to push our judiciary, police and the intelligence agencies to own this agenda and keep on pushing until we get them to take action. Only then will we see some kind of normalcy return back into the lives of Karachi’s residents.

THE WRITER WORKS IN THE CORPORATE SECTOR AND IS ACTIVE ON VARIOUS BUSINESS FORUMS AND TRADE BODIES

Published in The Express Tribune, April 15^th, 2013.

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