April 15, 2008	Tuesday	Rabi-us-Sani 8, 1429

KARACHI, April 14: The reign of terror unleashed on parts of Lyari Town by warring gangs of criminals has intensified during the last two days, forcing shopkeepers to shut their businesses and parents to stop children from going to schools.

In view of the deteriorating law and order situation, residents have called upon the government to take urgent steps against the gangsters and restore peace to the locality.

An intense exchange of fire took place between the two notorious groups of gangsters on Sunday midnight and Monday morning in the Shah Beg Lane and Baghdadi union council areas, making Lyari a dreaded place.

Residents say that no other locality of Karachi is home to so many armed gangs freely roaming the congested streets of the city’s oldest settlement, which is a strong support base of the ruling Pakistan People’s Party.

Besides the growing crime rate, Lyari faces acute water shortages, a lack of sanitation facilities, prolonged power failures, illegal construction and unlawful occupation of private buildings and public land by the land and drug mafias and a road system that exists only in name.

The lack of open spaces, recreational facilities, and the presence of several hundred warehouses and factories, storing and manufacturing hazardous materials, have condemned Lyari’s population to live under extremely stifling conditions.

Area people have always blamed the government and civic agencies for the pathetic state of affairs, saying that no serious attempt has been made to improve the living conditions by accelerating the developmental activity.

The Lyari Town administration, which took charge of the 11 union councils in its jurisdiction following the local body elections in 2001, has been unable to tackle many civic and social problems because of inadequate financial resources.

Apart from the plethora of civil and social troubles, growing lawlessness is the most pressing problem of the locality, which is a source of concern for the residents as armed gangs indulge in gun battles and go about firing indiscriminately, killing and maiming people.

Lyari Town is the oldest settlement of Karachi, having a population of 607,992 people, mainly comprising the labour class and small businessmen.

Once the locality was characterized as a ‘labour colony’, when it was dominated by manual workers engaged in port, railways and factories, but now it has become a small emerging middle-class area due to the expansion in trade and commercial activity.

The number of small businessmen, factory owners, shopkeepers, teachers, professionals and government employees has gradually been increasing over the past two decades.

Under the new local body system, the locality has been given the status of a town, but its commercial areas, including Lea Market and Timber Market, have been excluded from its limits, thereby depriving the town of its main source of revenue. It has been the only locality where the Pakistan People’s Party has been dominating the political scene since the ‘70s and it maintained its lead in the 2008 elections.

The residents of the locality hope that the new PPP government would solve their chronic problems, and launch a serious campaign against the criminals and restore peace to the locality.

Community leaders also expect that due representation will be given to the area legislators in the federal and provincial cabinets.