Street crimes in Pakistan-The failure of a state: By Sharjeel Mazhar

Street crimes refer to any public offence occuring in our surroundings. This may include robbery, theft, rape etc. In recent times, the number of street crime incidents have increased to a large extent in various big cities of Pakistan especially Karachi. In 2022, more than 12000 street crime incidents have been reported in Karachi. You may have seen in some videos on social media that people are robbed on streets by unknown people having guns. This is an alarming situation for all of us that megacity of Karachi also known as “City of Lights” which was once one of the fastest growing cities of the world is in such a miserable condition that people are not safe even during daytime. People do not feel safe going outside during night and also during the day. Some people suggest that the solution to this problem is to keep a licensed weapon like gun with them to keep themselves safe but it is not easy for everyone to do so because either licensed weapons are expensive or not available. So who is responsible for this?

To answer this, we first have to know the reasons due to which these types of events occur. The reasons include unemployment, poverty, illiteracy and corrupt system.

First reason is unemployment. The unemployment rate in Pakistan is so high that every year, 250,000 students graduate and out of which only 10,000 get a job and others become jobless. They try to get job everywhere but fail because there are far less number of projects initiated by government that would provide employment to the people. Also private institutions are not enough to give these people employment. So after trying their best, these people get so disheartened that they end up choosing unjust ways to earn money in which robbery and theft is included. There are many cases in which people performed these crimes due to unemployment and in other cases, they did because their earning is not enough to fulfill their home expenses. But similarity in both cases is that in both cases, the prime responsible is state because it is their duty to make projects to attract foreign investment and generate employment.

The second reason is poverty. As we have seen that our country suffered floods during 2022 and almost all of Sindh and Balochistan suffered alot due to this. The people who got their houses and property destroyed by flood had no where to go. They had nothing left so they started migrating to big cities and due to this they started earning by crimes because they were not educated enough to get a job. It is also because Pakistan has large population with less resources. Govt also gave shelter to Afghan refugees as a spirit of Islamic brotherhood not keeping in view that Pakistan is struggling to give employment and resources to their own people, how can it accomodate other people? It was good initiative to give shelter to our brothers and sisters suffering from war but planning should have been done before taking any step.

Third reason is illiteracy. In regions of Pakistan like interior Sindh and Balochistan, the literacy rate of people is so low and there are no adequate education institutions so people there are sometimes brainwashed by gangs to spread violence in the society. This also increases the rate of street crimes because of lack of education.

The forth point is corrupt system. According to Transparency international 2022 report, the most corrupt institution of Pakistan is police. It is indeed a fact because Pakistan is one of those countries in which people are afraid of police while they should feel secure. Bribe culture has destroyed the police and instead of doing their duty on govt salary, they take extra money from people. This is duty of police to protect people against street crimes and stop these types of incidents in the society but they show no interest in it. People do not inform police about their situations because they do not trust them. Police should be apolitical and perform their duty to protect citizens.

Conclusion is that we received this country in the name of Allah and Prophet Muhammad SAW. And our main focus should have been bringing this state in accordance of principles of Islam and form an Islamic society where everyone is happy and safe. But we failed to do this. Still we can make this better. State and institutions should work together to stop street crimes and keep their people safe and happy.