Pakistan was declared the third cheapest country to live in according to the cost of living index in a report published by Numbeo.com. Kudos. It is incidentally also the cheapest to die in.
Consider this: The cost of a life in Pakistan’s former capital, the largest city of the country and the economic hub of the state, Karachi, is a meagre two thousand rupees.
Consider more: That price comes down to the tenth of its value in Pakistan’s present capital – the elitist city of the country and the bureaucratic hub of the state – Islamabad, where poverty causes a murder over mere two hundred rupees.
And if you thought that was ridiculously low, the price further halves in Naudero, Sindh, where a dispute over a paltry one hundred rupees (less than a dollar), can claim your life.
Admittedly, the murder in Naudero, and the one in Islamabad could not have been prevented, notwithstanding the security apparatus, because where frustration and tempers claim lives, there are no solutions except eradicating poverty.
But the one in Karachi, the murder of a trader in broad daylight, claimed by a local extortionist, could very much have been avoided.
Yet, ignoring it, like all the excesses of the past, the primary debate for the country stays the rigging, and the weddings of the political entities. Our police has been rendered a sheer spectator in the city that once shown lights, and all we do is entertain ourselves at the eight o'clock cavilling of the jokers – throngs of them – that call themselves our leaders.
A friend from the Quaid’s city narrated how she clutches her handbag every time she stops at a signal, fearing, nay expecting, herself to be robbed.
I thought she was being comically paranoid.
A few weeks later, a group of friends visiting the city were robbed twice, two days apart, both the times on the same road.
Bhatta khori (extortion), theft, robberies, kidnappings, murders – you name it and Karachi is plagued by it. Gangs, enjoying political patronage, operate with impunity and the police resorts to only palliative measures to provide a semblance of order.
Sahir Ludhianvi had written, 'Zulm phir zulm hai, barhta hai tau mitt jata hai' (No matter how far it rises, cruelty, by its nature, vanishes at the end). I wonder when 'the end' will come for our beloved country, our ‘zinda qaum’.
When the Americans said enough is enough, the crime rate in New York City came plunging down 90 per cent in 19 years, from 1990 to 2010 – the largest decline of crime on record. Writing about it in his book The City that became safe, Franklin Zimring credited zero-tolerance policing, targeted harm reduction strategies and new management regime for this achievement.
Later, when Brazil said enough is enough, UPP (Pacifying police force) started pushing out the criminals from the city of Rio de Janeiro, one zone at a time. Secret helplines were established so the public could facilitate the police by sharing information anonymously. The drugs and ammunition were confiscated, and strict policing was implemented in such zones thereafter, to ensure the criminals do not return, making the city much safer.
Similarly, when Nitesh Kumar, the erstwhile Chief Minister (2005-2014) of Bihar, in India, had decided enough is enough, a speedy trial regime was put in place, together with a similar ‘zero tolerance’ policy as in Brazil and America. In just six years, a collective 70,000 criminals were convicted. So effective was the plan, it became a subject of study at the prestigious Princeton University.
And then Pakistan hiccuped enough is enough, like numerous times before in the past three decades. Matthieu Aikins, writing for Pulitzer Centre on crisis reporting, documented the operation in the following words:
“The uniqueness of Karachi’s gangs may be judged by the fact that when, last spring, the reigning Pakistan People’s party decided to turn against a group in Lyari, the city’s oldest slum, the gang – People’s Amn Committee – fought back for a week with automatic weapons and rockets in Lyari’s narrow streets, forcing the armoured vehicles of the police and paramilitary rangers to a standstill outside of the slums. In the end, the operation had to be called off.”
So much for the persistence of objectives.
The correspondence emanating from American consulate of Karachi in 2011, divulged by WikiLeaks, reveals the true gravity of situation. A part reads:
“The police in Karachi are only one of the several armed groups in the city, and they are probably not the most numerous or the best equipped. Many neighbourhoods are considered by the police to be no go zones… most (criminal gangs) are associated with a political party, a social movement, or a terrorist activity.”
So much for the writ of the state.
A report from the same year in Dawn had claimed, “A conservative official estimate suggests that almost 70 percent police stations are compromised – in the sense that they contribute nothing when it comes to saving lives… the same estimate concludes that almost all local police stations have fairly accurate information about the source of trouble in their jurisdiction.”
So much for acting on the information – the supposed duty of the police.
As I write this, Ahmed Chinoy is conducting a press conference in relation to a kidnapping in the city. Right underneath flashes another headline, a lawyer has been shot dead in an attempted road robbery, near Defence, Karachi, while his wife looked on.
If the constant barrage of these news cannot shake your palate for moving once and for all against these wings, nothing will.
Catching one or two Uzair Balochs, or killing one or two Baba Ladlas and Rehman Dakaits won’t do the trick – others would quickly rise to take the place. The ‘my political worker is being persecuted’ mentality, and ‘my ethnicity is being targeted’ rhetoric from the politicians does not help either.
The city needs to be completely cleansed off its gangs, and entirely de-weaponised (it is estimated that almost 20 million illegal and lethal weapons are present in the city).
Until such a time, the obliterated body of Chaudhary Aslam, the SP CID, on Lyari Expressway; the bullet-riddled body of a lawyer on defence road; the bloodcurdling murder of a factory’s supervisor in his office, would keep recurring in different forms.
Pray, let there be peace at least once in this city of the living dead.