Ehsan Mehmood Khan
Exclusive Article
Karachi has turned fast from economic capital into murder capital of Pakistan and from mother of the poor to murderer of the poor. To put the argument in perspective, let us first see the case of Ciudad Juárez, a city in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. Juárez is known as murder capital of the world due to the magnitude of violence and killings. It has remained gripped in drug cartel warover the years with some 1,600 murders in 2008, 2,600 in 2009 and 3,100 in 2010. The city has a population of over 1.5 million people. By 2009, annual murder rate had reached 133 per 100,000 inhabitants. More than 50,000 troops and federal police are actively involved in the fight against the cartels. Yet, there is not let up in transgression by drug mafia in Mexico at large, and Juárez in particular. According to a database released by the Mexican government on 12 January 2011, a total of 34,612 people have been killed over the past four years. The list showed that 2010 was the bloodiest year so far, with 15,273 drug-related murders in Mexico and 3,100 in Juárez.
The forms and magnitude of violence in Pakistan are no different than Mexico and in Karachi than Juárez, even though the motives may differ. By academic yardstick, crime both in Karachi and Juárez is rooted in economic, social and political (ESP) issues.
With an area of 3,527 square kilometers and nearly 20 million population, Karachi is the largest Muslim city on the world map. Orangi Town alone has a population of 1.2 million, virtually equating the city of Juárez. It is smaller in population than only to 56 countries of the world and is larger than remaining about 137 UN member states.
Karachi has tremendous economic potential. There are over 15,000 industries in five industrial zones of the city. The city generates the lion’s share of 67% for the national exchequer and 35% of the GDP. While ESP issues in Karachi breeds numerous ills. Processional religiosity and agitational politics too stops the wheel of life in the cosmopolitan. Deteriorating the law and order situation stops the wheels of industry and disturbs the trading circles, incurring loss of Rupees 3 to 5 billion per day and it takes 4 to 7 days for normalizing the situation in the aftermath of routine violence. During the current violence, Karachi has suffered an estimated economic loss of Rupees 60 billion affecting economic activities across the country.
Karachi is weathering a fresh wave of urban terrorism, hosts of civil offences and street crimes. About 1,500 street crime incidents take place daily. Cold-blooded murders are not speciality of Karachi alone. However, disregard to the holy month of Ramadan, as are being witnessed now, have never been the history of the cosmopolitan. Like Karachi (and even Juárez) crimes and murders do take place in other major metropolitans and cosmopolitans of the world too e.g. Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, New York and Mumbai. As a country, United States virtually witnesses highest number of criminal murders in the world each year. 16,929 people were murdered in the US during 2007, 16,442 during 2008 and 15241 during 2010. However, Karachi-like episodes are perhaps paralleled not even by Juárez. According to the Citizens Police Liaison Committee (CPLC) statistics for 2009, there were a total of 4,644 reported vehicle thefts in Karachi and 4,368 in 2010. CPLC recorded 801 murders in 2009 and 1,339 in 2010 (an increase of 67 percent). There were a total of 36,393 incidents of cell phone larceny reported in 2009 and 24,707 in 2010. A report recently issued by Karachi Chapter of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) noted that a total of 1,138 people were killed in the city during the first six months of the current year and 490 of them fell prey to targeted killings on political, sectarian and ethnic grounds. It is of note that these are the reported-cum-recorded figures. Like other databases in Pakistan, the crime data is also flawed an incomplete. Actually, innumerable innocent Karachiites have breathed their last while fasting during the month of Ramadan. It is a different kind of urban warfare, with no parallel in the world and has surpassed even Juárez in complexities.
Unlike Juárez, which is a hub of drug crimes in the world, Karachi has numerous causes of crime and conflict. Some consider it to be purely political terrorism, wherein the political parties have nurtured their own militant wings, active in pursing supreme political causes. The others hint at gangs formed by drug, land and crime mafia to be perpetrating the heinous crimes. Yet others point finger towards foreign hand. Actually, it is a complex mix of all these – a product of intertwining and criss-crossing politico-economic and criminal interests of various stakeholders to include numerous gangs, groups, parties, organization, tycoon and entrepreneurs. Key perpetrators are political militias, terrorist organizations, religious extremists, criminal gangs, land mafia, drug cartels and corporate tycoons involved in illegal business. The fifth hand is always there in form of fifth columnists financed, funded and fomented by the foreign espionage agencies. At any rate, the victims are, more often than not, the poor people of Pakistan, who are either permanent residents of Karachi or dwelling therein to earn living for their beloved ones living elsewhere in the country. At least 90% of the victims are neither linked with the political parties nor have any criminal background. They are often killed on the basis of their ethnic identity to terrorize and settle score with the political parties or groups they are identical to, or they come in the line of fire fortuitously and unknowingly.
(To be concluded)
