Karachi: a two-shift city of teeming millions

How well do you know Karachi? I mean both shifts of Karachi; the first shift which starts at sunrise and ends at sunset or thereabouts. This is when offices open, factories start humming, millions start chasing deadlines and ensuring prompt delivery of all kinds of goods, and the second more attractive shift when the shopping malls light up, seaside beaches and restaurants get crowded.

There is a vast contrast between the two and it is not just of time, it is about two versions of the same city that many people fail to notice or are prepared to face. Frankly, if you only know Karachi in the day time you don’t really know this city.

In daytime, it is confined to traffic, heat and hurried actions. At night time it is a whole new ball game that includes piping hot biryani at 11pm, speedy rides to outdoor eating places like Do Darya and conversations and arguments that stretch well past midnight. This is like the city plugs out of one job in the evening hours and clocks into another with the difference that the second shift is more attractive. If we treat it as the scenes of a play being played out on the city canvas we will involuntarily say that this is same set with a completely different story.

When you talk of Karachi and specially Karachi by night the conversation always turns to safety and yes that is a concern for everyone who ventures out in the night shift of this crowded and attractive city.

There are however safe zones like indoor malls that include Dolmen, Lucky One and outdoors at Boat Basin, DHA Sea View, Port Grand, Clifton main roads, etc., which are considered comparatively safe. There are danger spots too like isolated streets, and bank ATMs at night.

Only people looking for solitude and sitting alone in isolated places usually become victims; otherwise, most of those visiting Sea View are safe, and there is, of course, police patrolling most of the time. According to a rickshaw driver, Karachi is safest when it is crowded; at night, just stay where the lights and people are.

If you look at the figures you can be overawed by the number of crimes committed and yes the second shift of this city spawns more crimes than the first. According to CPLC and some crime analysis, there were around 66,530 street crime incidents between January and November 2024; that is roughly 199 cases every day.

Crimes peak around 8pm when offices and other workplaces close and people head to markets or homes. Mobile snatching is most common between 5pm and 11pm. while motorcycle thefts spike in the evening from 7pm to 10pm. Car snatching for some reason peaks earlier between 9 AM and 3 PM. The actors in the second shift of this city are ruthless.

Lives are lost by desperate owners trying to save their mobiles and motorcycles. In 2024, mugging claimed the lives of 100 people while 700 to 800 individuals were injured during mugging attempts.

Not many people understand the sheer animal instincts of the muggers and their determination to snatch mobiles and cash for which they are willing to go to any length; just for a mobile a bread earner of the family, a youth promising better days for his family, and such others are ruthlessly killed.

Every day the city of Karachi lives through the two shifts. Daytime it earns and at night-time it lives, notwithstanding the dangers that lurk .The horns turn into music, and the heat turns into cool sea breeze .

Yes there is danger, yet thousands step out because this is how the city breathes. Karachi is not one city; it is two taking turns on the same street. It is a city that refuses to shut down.

Day or night the city just doesn’t stop; it just finds another way to keep going. The sun sets but Karachi doesn’t. It just clocks into its second shift.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2026