KARACHI: President Karachi Chamber of Commerce & Industry (KCCI) Muhammad Idrees, while expressing deep concerns over rising streets crimes in the megacity, stated that the worsening situation poses a big question mark on the performance of Law Enforcing Agencies (LEAs).
He said that the LEAs have failed to control the street crime, adding nowadays the agonies of public have intensified further as a new trend has emerged in the city where people/ commuters were being fearlessly intercepted and beaten by the armed gunmen/ security guards either escorting or guarding vehicles bearing government number plates, fancy number plates or no number plates.
President KCCI mentioned that the Karachi Chamber has constantly been receiving complaints in which the people and also the members of business community were being beaten by armed gunmen/ security guards with no proper identity. “If business community is not safe in such a big city, then how the general public could remain safe”, he asked.
“Incidents pertaining to assault by private gunmen have become a routine on the streets of Karachi where any influential person orders his guards to beat the innocent people,” he said, adding that such incidents clearly indicate how weak and helpless the city’s law enforcing agencies have become.
He stressed that in order to effectively curb the rising street crime and provide a safe and secure environment to Karachiites, the LEAs have to revisit their strategies being pursued to secure the streets of Karachi where people were being looted, injured and even killed without any fear even during broad daylight.
Police and Rangers must intensify patrolling and snap checking at some of the most sensitive localities of Karachi from where the street crimes are widely being reported, besides keeping a vigil on the activities of those vehicles mostly double-cabin 4x4 being escorted by security guards, he said. “Display of proper identity of such security guards has to be made mandatory so that they could easily be taken to task if found responsible for creating problems to others.”
Muhammad Idrees said that the Karachi Chamber has brought the rising lawlessness issue to the notice of heads of LEAs and hoped that they will take practical steps to safeguard the streets of Karachi.
He underscored the need to carry out effective policing all over Karachi where the population has risen to more than 25 million whereas the law & order situation has been worsening day by day due to increase in street crime, burglaries, thefts, motorcycle and vehicle snatching, etc. Moreover, it is also a matter of concerns that the policemen deployed at the stations in the suburbs of Karachi including Gadap Town, instead of dealing with lawlessness, are usually busy in seeking bribes from the owners of plots who were constructing boundary walls to secure their plots.
Urging the lawmakers to stop step-motherly treatment to Karachi, he stressed that the law & order situation of this city has to be given special attention and an effective strategy has to be devised on war footings; otherwise, the situation would worsen further and the city will be plunged to a point of no return. “Law & order issue was linked with poor economic performance as it has been observed that the economic and business activities were shrinking and joblessness was rising; therefore, many people were landing up in the world of crime to fulfil their needs,” he added.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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