(April 5, 2019)
President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum (PBIF), President All Karachi Industrial Alliance (AKIA), Senior Vice Chairman of the Businessmen Panel of FPCCI and former provincial minister, Mian Zahid Hussain on Friday said that for eradicating street crimes in Karachi the additional inspector general of Police, Dr. Ameer Shaikh has formed street watch force, comprised of 1870 police personals but crime is on rise in the city; implementation of safe city project is vital to make Karachi a crime free City.
The Veteran Business Leader told the business community that 17 thousand street crimes incidents have been reported in the last three months to CPLC which lead to snatching of 9664 mobile phones, 5831 motorcycles and 345 vehicles. In addition, 60 valuable human lives have been lost including policemen and civilians. According to international survey, crime rate in Karachi is 58 percent, while 42 and 32 percent in Lahore and Islamabad respectively.
The Former Minister said that Karachi is economic hub of Pakistan and stable peace in the city is vital to flourish the trade activities. Karachi police has proposed video surveillance project for the city in 2017, in which installation of 10,000 latest cameras on 2,000 different locations was proposed but the project is still not implemented. Only 3 thousand cameras have been installed on just 300 locations in the biggest city of the Country of over 20 million population, most of which are malfunctioning.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that according to a report 35 thousand traffic accidents take place annually in Karachi which causes hundreds of life losses and cripples many others. To eradicate crimes and enforce traffic regulations in its true spirit implementation of safe city project is extremely important. Safe city project is enforced in every mega cities around the World; but unfortunately the biggest city of Pakistan that contributes to over 70 percent of the National exchequer is deprived of this important project.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that armed forces, rangers, police and the business community have given significant sacrifices for peace restoration in Karachi which should be preserved by launching safe city project in order to stabilize the law and order in the city. Rate of recovery of lost or snatched valuables will also be improved with safe city project; sense of accountability will be increased amongst the law enforcement agencies personnel, counter terrorism will get faster and busting criminal elements will get improved.
