An epidemic of street crime

EDITORIAL: One wonders whether there will ever come a time when the people of Karachi can go about their daily lives without having to worry about being robbed, assaulted or, worse, killed for their possessions. For years, street crime has been an almost inescapable feature of life in the city, with no end in sight to the staggering toll it continues to exact in lives and livelihoods. The latest figures offer a grim measure of how entrenched the problem has become: residents lost valuables worth an estimated Rs2. 27 billion to street criminals in the first eight months of 2026. Police data shows that 898 cars, 12, 200 motorcycles and 12, 846 mobile phones were snatched during this period. Based on conservative average values of Rs1. 5 million for a car, Rs50, 000 for a motorcycle and Rs25, 000 for a mobile phone, the combined losses from these three categories alone amount to approximately this sum. This, however, is only a fraction of the actual financial loss, as the estimate excludes cash, jewellery, gold, watches, laptops and countless other valuables. Nor does it capture the wider costs borne by victims, including lost working hours, disrupted livelihoods, psychological trauma and the expense of replacing stolen possessions. More disturbing still is the human cost. At least 55 people have been killed this year while resisting robbery attempts. A mobile phone or a few thousand rupees can within seconds become a matter of life and death. Claims by senior police officials, therefore, that street crime is declining can provide little succour to families who have lost loved ones. For them, the loss is permanent, regardless of how the authorities characterise the trend. There is no single explanation for the persistence of street crime. Economic hardship, unemployment, inflation and social deprivation can create fertile ground for criminality, but poverty cannot justify robbery or murder. The deeper failure lies in a law enforcement system that has repeatedly proved unable to deter criminals, dismantle organised networks, ensure effective investigation and bring offenders to justice. Karachi’s policing problems are hardly new. Questions over manpower, training, resources, investigation capacity, corruption and coordination among law enforcement agencies have persisted for years. Operations and arrests may provide temporary relief, but without sustained intelligence-led policing, effective prosecution and meaningful accountability, criminals can simply be replaced by others. Equally disheartening is the resignation that appears to have taken hold among citizens. People have learnt to conceal their phones, avoid certain roads, refrain from resisting robbers and accept the possibility of being deprived of their belongings as an ordinary hazard of urban life. No functioning city should demand such compromises from its residents. The economic consequences extend far beyond individual victims. Karachi is Pakistan’s commercial and industrial hub, and its ports, markets, businesses, financial institutions and services underpin a substantial part of national economic activity. An unsafe city imposes costs on businesses through security expenditure, disrupted operations, reduced mobility and weaker investor confidence. It also exacts a huge cost by eroding the quality of life and productivity of millions of people. The provincial government cannot allow this to become the permanent price of living in Karachi. Addressing economic deprivation through greater employment and economic opportunities must form part of the long-term solution, but such changes cannot happen overnight. The immediate priority must therefore be to protect citizens through effective policing, investigations that lead to convictions and an enforcement system capable of making criminals believe that there are consequences for their actions. Fifty-five lives and over Rs2. 27 billion in documented losses in just eight months should be enough to demonstrate that this is a crisis of public safety, governance and economic consequence that demands sustained action. Copyright Business Recorder, 2026

Read full story on Business Recorder