Save Karachi

[Hussain]

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

 

[Distant_Observer]

Look how Ethiopia is developing. PPP should feel ashamed.

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

 

[ghazi52]

Please don't laugh ............​

​

Karachi streets remain unsafe for citizens in 2025​

Imtiaz Ali
January 1, 2026
• Official data shows over 64,000 street crimes reported in outgoing year compared to 71,105 in 2024
• More than 46,000 citizens lost their cars / bikes, over 17,000 their cell phones in 2025

KARACHI: Although police have claimed a significant reduction in the overall crime rate for the outgoing year, muggers, carjackers and mobilephone snatchers continue to haunt Karachiites in 2025, with official figures showing over 64,000 street crime incidents and more than 70 deaths resulting from these crimes.

The precise figure of 64,323 incidents is based on the number of FIRs registered during the outgoing year. However, the actual number of street crimes is believed to be much higher as there are a large number of victims who have either been turned away by the police or have chosen not to visit a police station to register a case of looting.

According to comparative street crime data of Karachi maintained by the police, a total of 64,323 incidents of street crimes — robbery, cell phone snatching, vehicle snatching / theft — have been reported in the outgoing year of 2025 as compared to a total 71,105 such incidents in 2024, showing a reduction of 6,782 street crimes.

The data show a total of 70 people were killed and 290 wounded by street criminals till the first week of December 2025, whereas in 2024 a total of 99 people were gunned down and 400 others injured by robbers.

The police say that during the same period of 12 months, a total of 17,706 mobile phones were snatched at gunpoint while during corresponding period in 2024, a total of 19,353 cell phones were snatched.

The police data say that 6,683 vehicles (302 cars and 6,381 motorcycles) were hijacked at gunpoint in 2025 as compared to 8,370 of last year.

As many as 39,934 vehicles (1,813 cars and 38,121 motorbikes) were stolen as compared to 43,382 vehicles of last year.

Analysis by expert

Analyst Dr Zoha Waseem, who teaches criminology at the University of Warwick, UK, and has done extensive research on policing and crimes in the metropolis, believes that a comparison of just two years is not a good benchmark as at least five- or 10-year data is required to assess whether crimes have been prevented or only a perception of “safe city” has developed.

She says there is no better data collection as all incidents are not reported because people still do not like to approach police.

She opines that maybe only half of the total cases are being reported as there is no estimation about unreported number of cases in the metropolis.

Dr Waseem says there is no study or research to assess people’s perception about police or state as to whether any improvement has occurred in the public perception.

“There has been no research that public perception has been improved and people feel safer and the city as safe,” Dr Waseem says.

“There is no study or survey that people’s perception has improved and the people are happy about performance of the police or the government. I have not seen such thing and I am not sure about the extent of achievement of the law enforcers,” she says, adding: “But if there is a trend that over a period of time, the number of crimes has gone down, then you could say they are doing good job.”

Carjacking ‘declines’ due to use of technology

Citizens-Police Liaison Commission (CPLC) Chief Zubair Habib opines that snatching of vehicles and cell phones is on decline partly because of use of technology (installation of CCTV cameras). As with the use of this technology, the criminals are being detected and arrested, he adds.

Mr Habib suggests that the way forward for controlling crimes, despite rising unemployment and closure of factories and migration of people to Dubai or other countries, lies in utilisation of technology.

Another major step that needs to be taken pertains to improving “Thana culture”, he adds.

He says that the Thana culture should be turned into service oriented.

As the use of technology has “ended” the “corruption” of traffic police through e-challan system, such technology should also be used at the police stations to end corruption of the police, he suggests.

IGP takes pride in crime reduction

Inspector General of Police Ghulam Nabi Memon told Dawn that there is an overall reduction in crime despite significant challenges.

He says this achievement has been made “despite severe socio-economic challenges, including inflation, unemployment, urban migration, and population growth”.

Regarding street crimes in Karachi, the IG says this crime has also been “contained”.

“Karachi is witnessing a stabilisation and gradual containment and reduction in street crime in 2025, preventing escalation despite economic stress and population growth,” says the top cop of Sindh.

“The daily average street crimes has declined from 1.36 per day in the year 2024 to 1.04 per day in the year 2025.” He says “violent robberies” have also been kept under check.

“The incidents of robbery with murder and injury have remained contained and closely monitored, with 70 fatalities and 290 injuries recorded during the year 2025 as compared to 99 fatalities and 400 injuries during the year 2024.”

The IGP cites a host of steps behind the reduction in street crimes. He says that the police are focused on operations against armed gangs and habitual offenders, which has helped prevent “a wider spike in violent crime”. Besides, targeted and intelligence-led policing has also been initiated, he adds.

He says that the police have emphasised data-driven deployments, snap checking, weapons recovery, and repeat offender tackling, which have delivered “tangible results in high-crime corridors”.

 

[Bilal]

Just nuke Karachi once and for all.

It’s all just schadenfreude. Let’s be honest.

 

[puttputt]

Just nuke Karachi once and for all.

It’s all just schadenfreude. Let’s be honest.

tbh I'd even take winding Karachi down in favour of new planned cities distributed throughout interior Sindh, but on the condition that these cities are properly built, developed, and maintained. However, the PPP, feudal lords, etc., don't care, be it for Karachi, Sindh, or Pakistan. They'll loot and plunder the nation with their hands, and stir nativist, ethnocentric (e.g., Sindudesh) rhetoric with their mouths.

 

[ghazi52]

Karachi’s deadly roads and the limits of enforcement​

While the official figures point to measurable progress, urban planning and road safety experts caution that enforcement-led gains alone cannot address Karachi’s deeper mobility crisis.

Imran Ayub
January 2, 2026

A few months ago, traffic on Karachi’s busy Rashid Minhas Road was moving with its usual chaos when a routine commute turned fatal. On the Askari Flyover, a 22-year-old woman riding a motorcycle hit a pothole while travelling in the fast lane. She lost her balance and fell onto the road.

Within seconds, a water tanker approaching from behind ran her over and killed her on the spot.

The incident barely stood out in a city accustomed to daily road fatalities, yet it captured the lethal mix that defines Karachi’s traffic crisis. Reckless driving, excessive speed, crumbling infrastructure, and weak enforcement of traffic laws have become the hallmarks of the city’s roads.

In 2025, while Karachi grappled with a series of troubling developments, fatal road accidents emerged as more than just routine headlines in the national media, as they evolved into a significant political issue as well. At one point, the situation became so volatile that fears resurfaced of ethnic tensions spilling over, a spectre that has historically undermined the city’s peace and stability.

A total of 803 people lost their lives in traffic accidents in Karachi in 2025. The Karachi traffic police, however, maintains that the situation began to improve during the latter half of the year.

 

[ghazi52]

Misgovernance & low growth​

Mohammad Younus Dagha
December 31, 2025

The writer was formerly a federal secretary and caretaker provincial minister. He is currently the chairman of the Policy Research and Advisory Council.

ECONOMISTS agree that cities are the primary engines of economic growth. All our development partners have been telling us that, without addressing Karachi’s infrastructure issues, Pakistan cannot achieve its growth targets.

On Aug 29, 2025, this newspaper published my article on how Karachi has been deprived of its rightful share of more than Rs3 trillion since 2010. Had that amount been spent on Karachi, we would not have reached this chaotic situation.

With Karachi’s consistent neglect, Pakistan has been suffering from a low average growth syndrome since 2010. The Prime Minister’s Economic Transformation Agenda and Implementation Plan (2024-29) sets a growth target of six per cent. In the first year of the plan, we achieved only 2.7pc.

Pakistan will continue to remain in a low-growth quagmire unless it improves the infrastructure of its growth engine, Karachi, which contributes 50pc of the country’s exports and handles 76pc of its trade. Let’s check one issue that has become critical to its population and industry: water.

Most of us, including our most vocal political leadership, are under the impression that the completion of the Greater Karachi Water Supply Scheme (K-IV) will resolve the city’s water crisis.

They are overlooking the fact that the Sindh government has turned K-IV, a water supply project, into a highly complex and insoluble inter-provincial issue. Given the Sindh government’s reluctance to provide funds for K-IV since 2007, the federal government took up the matter in December 2014, and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif directed that K-IV be completed within three years.

 

[ghazi52]

In January 2015, the media reported that Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari directed the provincial government to resolve Karachi’s water shortage “on an emergency basis” and complete K-IV at the earliest.

But even after 11 years, there is no sign of K-IV’s completion. The Sindh government is also moving at a snail’s pace on the augmentation project for water distribution pipelines, which has been pending since 2016. Even if by any chance K-IV is completed and the augmentation of pipelines carried out, Karachi’s water issue won’t be resolved. Why?

Karachi needs 1,200-1,300 MGD (million gallons per day) of water. However, it gets roughly 550 MGD from Keenjhar Lake and 100 MGD from Hub Dam. The fact that most of this water reaches consumers through water tankers is another issue. The shortage is estimated to be 650 MGD or roughly 50pc of Karachi’s needs.

 

[ghazi52]

Karachi pays 90pc of Sindh’s taxes and 60pc of federal taxes, yet it has not received its rightful share of more than Rs3tr since 2010 from the Sindh government, the NFC beneficiary.

The IWA provides for preferential treatment for Karachi’s water needs, but the Sindh government won’t abide by it even if it means only a tiny fraction of the province’s water resources.

Then what is the logical solution to these issues that are impeding national growth, while also contributing to the unending misery of Karachi’s residents?

 

[SaadH]

tbh I'd even take winding Karachi down in favour of new planned cities distributed throughout interior Sindh, but on the condition that these cities are properly built, developed, and maintained. However, the PPP, feudal lords, etc., don't care, be it for Karachi, Sindh, or Pakistan. They'll loot and plunder the nation with their hands, and stir nativist, ethnocentric (e.g., Sindudesh) rhetoric with their mouths.

PPP is a political non-entity in sindh. The real power is wielded by those who run fraudulent census every now and then and then streal people's mandate in broad day light.

 

[SaadH]

tbh I'd even take winding Karachi down in favour of new planned cities distributed throughout interior Sindh, but on the condition that these cities are properly built, developed, and maintained. However, the PPP, feudal lords, etc., don't care, be it for Karachi, Sindh, or Pakistan. They'll loot and plunder the nation with their hands, and stir nativist, ethnocentric (e.g., Sindudesh) rhetoric with their mouths.

In January 2015, the media reported that Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari directed the provincial government to resolve Karachi’s water shortage “on an emergency basis” and complete K-IV at the earliest.

But even after 11 years, there is no sign of K-IV’s completion. The Sindh government is also moving at a snail’s pace on the augmentation project for water distribution pipelines, which has been pending since 2016. Even if by any chance K-IV is completed and the augmentation of pipelines carried out, Karachi’s water issue won’t be resolved. Why?

Karachi needs 1,200-1,300 MGD (million gallons per day) of water. However, it gets roughly 550 MGD from Keenjhar Lake and 100 MGD from Hub Dam. The fact that most of this water reaches consumers through water tankers is another issue. The shortage is estimated to be 650 MGD or roughly 50pc of Karachi’s needs.

People who run census and steal mandates in Sindh/Karachi, also run thr tanker mafia. Water or any other issue plaguing Karachi will never be resolved.

 

[Bilal]

tbh I'd even take winding Karachi down in favour of new planned cities distributed throughout interior Sindh, but on the condition that these cities are properly built, developed, and maintained. However, the PPP, feudal lords, etc., don't care, be it for Karachi, Sindh, or Pakistan. They'll loot and plunder the nation with their hands, and stir nativist, ethnocentric (e.g., Sindudesh) rhetoric with their mouths.

This my friend is the problem and an establishment that looks at Karachi as conquered foreign territory.

 

[ghazi52]

 

[Distant_Observer]

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

 

[RescueRanger]

I get so angry when I see news about Karachi, never anything new. I love this city, spent many years living here, such a vibrant and colourful city, the only place in Pakistan where you can get a Anday wala burger at 4am in the morning - just ruined by mismanagement, nepotism, poor leadership and zero accountability.