KARACHI, Oct 23: Leader of the Opposition in Sindh Assembly, Nisar Ahmed Khuhro said that Karachi had broken the world record of street crimes, as Karachiites were deprived of belongings worth millions of rupees owing to the apathy of government, police and administration even in Ramazan.

“Only in one month of Ramadan about 15,000 mobile phones were either snatched or stolen from roads, streets, markets, different localities and outside the mosques of Karachi by outlaws,” he said in a statement on Sunday.

Criticising the prime minister's recent visit in which he vowed that crimes would be completely curbed by Oct 31, Mr Khuhro termed it a publicity stunt saying street crimes had increased alarmingly after his visit.

“Before start of Ramazan, every government functionary including President Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz assured that crimes would be curbed strictly during the holy month but the ground reality is quite different from their statements”, Khuhro said.

The PPP leader claimed that most of mobile snatching or stealing was reported in Saddar, Jamshed, Clifton and Liaqatabad towns where heavy contingents of Rangers and police were deployed besides patrolling owing to frequent visits of VIPs.

“Government's failure over rampant lawlessness could be seen as it had reshuffled portfolios of interior ministry four times and once again considering changing it”, he noted.

Castigating government for its failure to control prolonged power outages, he said although federal minister assured that there would be no power shutdown after Oct 12, load shedding was still on the rise in Karachi.—PPI