KARACHI: President Karachi Chamber of Commerce & Industry (KCCI) Muhammad Idrees, while expressing deep concerns over rising streets crimes all over the city, stated that the worsening situation poses a big question mark on the performance of Law Enforcing Agencies (LEAs) who have remained totally unsuccessful in dealing with the menace of street crimes while 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.
In a statement issued, 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 will the general public be 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 which happens nowhere around the world”, 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 crimes and provide a safe and secure environment to Karachiites, the Law Enforcing Agencies have to revisit all 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 were widely being reported, besides keeping a vigil on the activities of those vehicles mostly double-cabin 4×4 being escorted by security guards. “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 others.”
Muhammad Idrees said that the Karachi Chamber has brought the rising lawlessness issue to the notice of heads of Law Enforcing Agencies and hoped that they will take practical steps to safeguard the streets of Karachi where it was high time to take stringent measures so that street crimes could be controlled while a couple of examples must also be set to put an end to the hooliganism by power people.
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 crimes, burglaries, thefts, motorcycle and vehicle snatching etc. which were widely being reported from almost all parts of the country. Moreover, it was 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, were 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 with 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 footing 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.
