Daily Times

Pakistan’s financial capital Karachi has witnessed remarkable improvement on the global crime ranking in the past six years. According to Numbeo, a leading crowd-sourced database collection site, the city’s ranking went down from the 6th most dangerous city in the world in 2014 to all the way down to 93rd by 2020. Not only this, the crime index rate also went down from approximately 84 to 55 in the same period. However, these figures aren’t entirely accurate at times since they’re based on public perception yet there is a sense of overall safety.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime’s (UNODC) 2017 intentional homicide rate ranks Pakistan on 139 with a rate of 4.20 per 100,000 inhabitants on the index. This figure is inclusive of Karachi’s ranking and may have likely further improved if recent data from other sources is to be considered.

Since the 1990s, the city has often been marred by high homicidal and other crime rates which peaked in early 2010s when at one point, some 2000 people lost their lives in targeted killings. The reason for such an unusually high rate were political turf wars backed by certain political parties and their shadowy militant wings. Police had remained largely helpless owing to its limitations and lack of coordination resulting from corrupt practices and political hindrances.

In the era of social media and light of the prime minister’s vision for Digital Pakistan, dedicated wings should work round the clock and listen to the public’s plights to resolve issues after necessary verifications.

However, when Pakistan Rangers (Sindh) were empowered to conduct the Karachi operation from September 2013 onwards under a new federal administration, the tide gradually turned in the state’s favour. Of course, Sindh Police had a key stake in the crucial operation since it jointly coordinated with the paramilitary forces.

Apart from crime rate, terrorism reduced significantly as well thanks to swift military operations across key flashpoints of the country under Operations Zarb e Azb and Radd-ul-Fasaad. This had direct impact on Karachi which saw steep reduction in violent crime/terror rate and generally became a much safer city under the rangers-mandated operation.

On an interesting note, the US Department of State’s Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC) issued a cautionary report on the city’s crime rate for the year 2019 which highlights significant decrease in violent crimes but considers theft/mobile snatching incidents to have increased drastically.

The latter primarily comes under the domain of Sindh Police which seems to have done insufficient in having checks and balances. In developed cities across the world, police forces are empowered to deal with petty crimes in a robust manner.

As for the role of rangers, it would be an injustice not to provide them due credit in tackling both terror and crime since their swift actions have played a pivotal role. Nevertheless, police should be further empowered, and the role of paramilitary forces should eventually recede. For this purpose, rangers can assist the police in providing relevant skills and training.

Joint intelligence operations have remained a norm for a while for containing serious incidents but now the time has come for petty crimes to be dealt with an iron hand.

In the era of social media and light of the prime minister’s vision for Digital Pakistan, dedicated wings should work round the clock and listen to the public’s plights to resolve issues after necessary verifications.

Judicial system and evidence collection methods would also require a major overhaul since criminals manage to find loopholes in getting away. Hence, it is high time that police and judicial reforms be formulated for the best interests of not only Karachi but the entire country.

The writer is Associate Editor (Diplomatic Affairs), Daily Times. He tweets @mhassankhan06