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Karachi, the city of lights as it is known, is one of the biggest cities in the world. It is one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world and has a population of fifteen million people. It contributes to a fifth of Pakistan’s GDP and almost half of both revenue and taxes. Needless to say, it is the most important cities of the country both due to its economy and due to its culture. The cultural importance is due to the sheer amount of people and diversity of cultures of the populace that lives and works in the megacity. 

Unlivable City

Sadly, Karachi is also one of the most unlivable cities in the world, not just in Pakistan. Not that many Pakistani cities are incredibly livable either of late due to climate calamities, political chaos, and inflation. However, Karachi is at the same time one of the most important and least loved cities of the country. Least loved not by the people, but by those in power-the government and all other institutions that have a say in how it is run. 

There is no other explanation why the situation in the city is so bad for its citizens. Karachiites find themselves being disowned by the rest of the province and the rest of the country despite contributing so much to the country as a whole. According to the Economist, Pakistan’s financial capital ranks 168^th in the global livability index. 

The index itself is based upon indicators that measure qualitative and quantitative factors across some categories-stability, healthcare, culture, environment, education, and infrastructure. Any Karachiites will agree with this categorization, especially when it comes to stability and the infrastructure. Only a few cities lagged behind the city when it comes to the index itself, these being Damascus, Tripoli, and Lagos. If you noticed, these three were or are active warzones in recent history. Sadly, for the citizens of Karachi, they have to make similar considerations as to the citizens of warzones like Kabul when it comes to leaving their house in the morning.

Law and Order

The law and order situation is one of the biggest worries of a Karachiite, and in this article we will be discussing the main form that this situation manifests itself in-street crime. Not too long ago, the incidents of terrorism coupled with organized crime were the main destabilizing factors when it came to law and order in the city. The late 2000s and the early 2010s saw a rise in terrorism in the country and Karachi found itself have to worry about that situation in addition to the already ongoing politically motivated violence that was occurring in the city. 

Political parties were split along ethnic lines, the past of which is so complex that it stretches to the very creation of the country, and so we cannot get into that in depth in an article such as this. In short, some political parties had criminal affiliations and used their ethnic roots to spark violence in the city. Things were so bad that bhatta, a form of protection money paid out to the violent wings of political parties, was as prevalent as paying taxes for any business in the city. People being abducted and their bodies being found a few days later in sacks was a common phenomenon during those times. 

Kidnapping for ransom, murder, target killings, robberies, political violence, and sheer senseless violence was insanely common during this time in the city. The situation in the city was bad for decades, and the Rangers were first deployed in the city in the late 1990s. to quell politically motivated violence during that time. However, things had gotten so bad due to terrorism and targeted killings that at one time Karachi ranked sixth in the global crime index. 

This went on until 2012-2014 where Ranger deployment went up after it became and the city went from being sixth in the global clime index to 68^th in 2014.  Rangers officials indicated that the latest spike in rangers activity in 2013 was successful in rooting out organized crime. There were close to fifteen thousand operations conducted in one year during this time and the incidents of targeted killings, extortion, and kidnapping were down by more than ninety percent going from 2013-2014. Both terror cells and political crime syndicates were targeted and massive amounts of ordinance including LMGs, suicide vests, and automated weaponry was found and destroyed during this time. 

However, all was not happily ever after when this was all said and done-the vacuum left by these terrorist cells and political violence was quickly filled in by low-level street criminals that were much more difficult for authorities to root out.

The Current State of the City  

As counter intuitive as it seems, terror cells and organized political wings are easier to root out as they need bases of operations and when agencies caught one member they were able to get to other members and cut off the head of the snake. When it comes to low-level street crime like snatchings and robberies, most of the people that do this are not doing this to make money but just to survive. 

Anyone can get a bike and a gun and evade police patrols that sparsely patrol the city. Catching these hundreds and thousands of low level criminals has proven difficult and due to inflation and rising prices more and more of these criminals are coming out to do the same. In march of this year, the chief minister stated that almost eight thousand of these different criminals were on the loose in the streets of this city and causing havoc throughout. After a brief dip in these kinds of crimes in 2021, this year has seen another spike in these kinds of crimes in the city. There has been a staggering rise in incidents of mobile phones (3,845), motorcycles (672) and cars (20) snatched away from Karachi residents in the first six weeks of 2022. The trend continued in the city and there seems to be no end to this trend. 

In Conclusion

So, what can be done?

The easy answer is to call in the rangers again, give them the authority to go wild like they did in 2013. Unfortunately, that kind of option does not work for independent groups and individual snatchers across the city. More so there has been a spike in crime after floods drove people from interior Sindh to the city that are homeless, jobless, and are not taken care of by the government. There is no direct solution to this problem and it needs to be tackled on various fronts. One, the government needs to ensure no one starves in the city-people with nothing to lose will commit violence, that is just common sense. Two, more police presence on the roads and more CCTV coverage and tagging to keep the roads safe. Three, the government needs to start caring about the city. The last part in the most important of all.