Pakistan: Law and order situation worsening in Karachi amid rising crime
Feb 28, 2022
Karachi [Pakistan], February 28 : The downwards slide of the law and order situation in Pakistan's Karachi was visible as security forces remained a silent spectator to a robbery that stripped over a hundred people of their valuables on a major city road, local media reported.
Both the police and the Rangers looked the other way while the robbery, which lasted for more than an hour, took place on the Korangi Causeway in Karachi, The Express Tribune reported.
It is unexplainable why law enforcement took a long time to respond to the call for help while an eight-member gang armed with weapons snatched valuables from the motorists by blocking traffic on the causeway, said an opinion piece published in the Pakistani newspaper.
However, no action has been taken by the administration in this incident and instead the occurrence is being politicised.
Notably, street crime in Karachi has risen to unprecedented levels with over 50,000 such incidents reported in the city during the first eight months of 2021. As many as 13 people have died in Karachi in one and a half months of the current year, that is till mid-February, while 11,000 incidents of street crime have been reported.
Amid poor governance, Karachi is facing a lot of issues that include shortages of utilities like water and gas, encroachments, unbearable traffic, unprecedented increase in crimes, the Pakistani newspaper reported.
The major cause behind the problem seems to be the lack of conversation between the city's elected representatives and the provincial government setup. The city, that has voted for a mix of parties -- largely for the PTI, is suffering due to the conflict between PTI and the PPP, the ruling provincial government.
Meanwhile, the city continues to decline into chaos amid a lack of accountability and the political tussle between different parliamentary parties in Pakistan.
