Odho asks traders to stop complaining as ‘there is more crime in Lahore than in Karachi’

People are worried sick about the rising street crime in Karachi, with several citizens falling prey to robbers every day, but the city police chief thinks that the situation is not as bad as it is being made out to be.

On Friday, Karachi police chief Jawed Alam Odho denied in a media talk at the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industries (KCCI) that crime was rising in the metropolis. Officials said the city’s top cop visited the KCCI, where the additional inspector general heard about the reservations and problems traders were facing and assured them of full cooperation in solving them.

He remarked that the people of Karachi are their own enemies, the businessmen make a noise, spread sensation, and then say that there is no investment in the city. He said there is more crime in Lahore and other cities, but the people of Karachi are kicking themselves.

Odho said that according to the Citizens-Police Liaison Committee, crime incidents had reduced in Karachi, as last year 18,000 vehicles were snatched or stolen, but this year the number was 13,000.

He stressed that the Safe City plan was the need of the city, and if the flood victims were not controlled, the problems would increase. He suggested that business communities should promote command and control centres. He informed the traders that the police had installed camera systems in many places, which had improved the situation.

PTI MPAs meet Odho

The parliamentary leader of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in the Sindh Assembly, Khurrum Sher Zaman, and other MPAs of the party on Friday called on Karachi Additional Inspector General of Police Javed Alam Odho to raise concern about the deteriorating law and order situation in Karachi.

The PTI leaders presented a letter to the Karachi police chief stating that the police seemed unable to control the rising crime in Karachi as around 56,000 street crime incidents had been reported in the city during eight months and drug peddlers were also working freely without fear of the law.

Zaman told Odho that the citizens of Karachi were unaware of the police strategy to deal with criminals. After the meeting, the PTI delegation talked to the media saying that the party was concerned about the law and order situation in Karachi.

They said that the PTI had moved a petition with the Sindh High Court against the increasing number of street crime and it had also been raising the issue in the Sindh Assembly. The PTI leaders said that excluding other street crimes, more than 50,000 vehicles were stolen, more than 25,000 mobile phones were snatched, and around 2,000 motorcycles were stolen during the last year. This year, around 60 people had been killed in a few weeks and 250 people injured by criminals, they lamented.

The lawmakers remarked that the Sindh government and police were responsible for the killings of dozens of people. The PTI believed in politics for the interest of the common people, they added.

They said drug peddlers were killing children as they were openly selling drugs to students outside schools, colleges and universities. Without the police’s support, sale of drugs was not possible in the city, they remarked.

The PTI delegation asked the Karachi police chief about the status of the Safe City Project and how many CCTV cameras had been installed so far. They also asked if a separate force named Shaheen Force was being made to combat street crime and if that was so, what would make it different from the regular police force.