Karachi's killer streets

Karachi has always had a reputation for lawlessness, but recent months have seen a spike in violence that harkens to the worst periods in the megacity's history. At least 19 people have been killed this year in street crimes – including five in five days earlier this week — leaving citizens to grapple with the fear of becoming the next victim of violence as the police continue their rich tradition of not knowing how to police the city. Despite at least 106 people being murdered during street crimes last year, there seems to be little impetus to address the problem this year.

And it is not just the murder rate that illustrates police incompetence. A fair argument can be made that the rate of deadly street crimes is low, relative to the rate of street crimes overall. Over 72,000 street crimes were recorded last year, or about 200 every day, or one every seven minutes.

While law enforcement does occasionally make conscientious attempts to combat this trend, the existing strategies have proven inadequate. The arrest of one or two "high-profile" criminals does little to solve the larger problem when there is a constant influx of new offenders.

While some are driven by factors such as poverty, unemployment and lack of education — which can be blamed on the failures of elected officials at local, provincial and federal levels — far too many first-time criminals get into the business because they know it is highly unlikely that the Karachi police will ever catch them. But even if the police can't or won't do their jobs, elected officials need to do more than criticise the police and focus on their own jobs, particularly addressing the environmental factors that make people willing to cause harm to their fellow citizens' life and property.

Making Karachi safe should be a national priority, because, as the country's commercial capital, for better or worse, it is where a disproportionate amount of foreign investment must go, and no company wants to invest in a city where their employees are constantly at risk of being killed during their morning commute.

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