RISING debt, poverty as well as erosion of natural resources are the key issues affecting life in today’s Pakistan. But we should not ignore the effects of rapid urbanisation in the country. The current law and order situation in Sindh, including armed robbery, ransom, extortion and carjacking, is forcing a lot of people in rural areas to move along with police convoys in the katcha areas. Life beyond sunset is all seriously insecure.

It is only obvious that anyone who can afford to move from rural to urban areas of the province is doing that. Those who are unable are trying their best to somehow manage the migration. Forced to migrate by security concerns, people from rural areas land in the big cities only to find themselves deprived of basic utilities, like, for instance, water supply. The cities obviously are unable to accommodate such a large exodus from rural centres.

Things being what they are, people who were living a good life in their hometowns are now frustrated in cities, like Karachi and Hyderabad. The government must restore peace through a planned, decisive and sustained and crackdown against the criminal elements in katcha areas of the province so that these ‘immigrants’ may go back to their homes in rural areas.

Fakhra Ansari
Sukkur

Published in Dawn, August 7th, 2024