KARACHI, Sept 26: Perturbed by violent incidents of street crimes business leaders of Karachi consulted with authorities on Tuesday to discuss ways to bring about improvement in the security situation on roads in the city.

Businessmen do not expect drastic fall in crime rate unless some radical changes in policing of the city are introduced that correspond to the ground realities.

They saw a major mismatch in security requirements and security provisions in Karachi. They felt that the quality of security arrangements will have to improve to let the city perform to its capacity. In Karachi roughly there is one policeman to serve about 750 persons.

“There is a need to do more. We are ready to chip in our bit as responsible corporate citizens. It is not possible to police a population nearing 20 million from 104 stations on strength of an ill-equipped, untrained, underpaid police force,” Majyd Aziz, president Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry told Dawn.

It would be unrealistic to pin hopes on 100 elite ‘Muhafiz force’ personnel to make a major dent in the trend, he added.

“We recently lost a young promising corporate leader Mr Khatri to this menace. Every other day businessmen are hounded, harassed and robbed in the old city where transactions involve dealings in cash”, he told Dawn after a meeting on the situation.

The said meeting was held at the office of KCCI presided by its president and attended among others by the office bearers of Citizen Police Liaison Committee (CPLC), Police Chamber Liaison Committee (PCLC), IG Police, DIGs, deputy chief of Rangers, deputy Home Secretary, heads of crime monitoring cells in different industrial areas, etc.

Recently a known businessman, Abdul Aziz Khatri, 35, was murdered in Site industrial area by fleeing criminals after robbing him on a busy street. In another similar incident daughter-in-law of Haji Usman, a veteran business leader, was also killed.

Some termed the recent spurt in road crime graph seasonal. “This is pre-Eid hype. During this time there is more cash dealing and fat purses attract hooligans”, Syed Usman Ali, a textile leader said.

Usman heads a committee on law and order of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI). He, however, felt that the situation this year is better than the previous Ramazans. He told Dawn that there was a fall in number of reported street crimes in Karachi over the same period last year.

Others contradict his view and attribute lesser reporting rate of actual crimes to police for the favourable numbers.

“Hardly five per cent of street crimes get reported. Only those crimes are reported where there is some compulsion on the victim to report - like filing of an insurance claim, etc. The hurt of a crime is painful enough for people. No one wants to deal with police for obvious reasons”, Khawaja Sohail Mansur, chief of Site crime monitoring cell told Dawn.

Many traders insure their cash in transit and other high value accessories and need a copy of Police report to process their insurance claims.

There are reports that give credence to the impression that there is a disproportionate increase in road crimes in commercial and industrial areas of the city. The security situation in the city is far from satisfactory but it has become scary in industrial areas.

“There is hardly a day when someone does not approach us with some horrid tale of a hold up,” secretary at an association office in an industrial area told Dawn.

The incidents of snatching at gun point in Karachi have increased over the last few weeks. “This seems to be a new breed of criminals who are either too daring or too desperate.

They strike at their pleasure at any time in busy areas in front of innumerable witnesses,” Aftab Bhura, a local trader said.

“Gone are the days when petty purse snatchers waited for dusk and preferred a deserted patch or some isolated turning to corner their target. Now they come in pairs, full of confidence, hurling abuses, wagging guns in broad daylight, on traffic signals at main road junctions”, said a disturbed young business leader robbed recently in Site industrial area.

“I was robbed on my way back home around 04:pm in the afternoon. I was near Siemens’s roundabout in Site area when signalled to stop by two persons on a motorcycle. I saw a police mobile little ahead on the road but neither I had time nor guts to call for help.

I gave whatever they asked for - cash, watch, mobile phone, gold chain and my business bag. The whole episode took no more than five minutes, during all this while both snatchers were hurling abuses and one of them had a pistol pointed at my head,” he told Dawn.