Experts call Karachi’s ranking as world’s second least safe city a ‘reflection’ of reality 

KARACHI: The Economist Intelligence Unit has ranked Karachi the second least safe city in the world after Myanmar’s Yangon on its Safe Cities Index 2021, with experts saying it wasn’t surprising given deteriorating health, security and climate conditions in the southern Pakistani port city.
The Safe Cities Index 2021 is the fourth iteration of the index, based on 76 indicators covering digital, health, infrastructure, personal and environmental security. The first such biennial report was published in 2015 but didn’t mention Karachi as it had only 50 cities.
In the next report published in 2017, the Pakistani port city was ranked as the least safe city, on 60th position. In the last index issued in August 2019, Karachi’s ranking improved and it was placed on 57th position, above Yangon, Caracas and Lagos.
This year, however, Karachi’s ranking dropped to 59 with 39.7 points in five categories. India’s New Delhi and Mumbai ranked 48 and 50, respectively. Copenhagen, Toronto, Singapore, Sydney and Tokyo are the top five safest cities in the world.
Health experts and analysts believe the grading is a reflection of reality. A spokesperson for the provincial government and the Karachi commissioner did not respond to repeated attempts to seek comment.
“The degradation is a reflection of the deteriorating situation of health in Karachi,” Dr. Qaisar Sajjad, secretary general of the Pakistan Medical Association, told Arab News. “We don’t see any steps which may make us see any better conditions in the future.”
Health and climate conditions had deteriorated with the passage of time, according to Sajjad, and the price of medical treatment had shot up manifolds in both public and private sector hospitals of the city.
“Government-run hospitals used to offer free treatment and would provide immediate health care, especially in case of emergencies,” Dr. Sajjad said, recalling a recent traffic accident at the city’s Liaquatabad flyover in which the injured died after four hospitals, two of them from the public sector denied him treatment. Government-run hospitals have also started charging heavily for tests and hospitalization, he noted.
Highlighting a lack of preventive steps by the government, the PMA secretary general said: “The sewerage system is fragile, pure drinking water is unavailable and there is abundance of mosquitos due to which health care facilities receive more patients of mosquito-borne diseases.”
Karachi has seen environmental degradation too and the city has transformed into a concrete jungle after massive cutting of trees, Sajjad said.
“There is noise and air pollution. Trash is not disposed of properly and it’s burnt instead. Car emissions are also adding to pollution in the city,” he said. “So, how can we be hopeful when we see deterioration in health and climate?”
In its report, the Economist Intelligence Unit said all categories were correlated and even when one was affected, it compromised the overall security of citizens. Experts agreed that all indicators presented a grim picture of the Pakistani port city and main financial hub.
“No serious efforts have been made for the security of the city,” Mazhar Abbas, a Karachi-based political commentator and analyst, told Arab News. “Around $124 million were spent on the safe city project in Islamabad, whereas $157 million were allocated for the Lahore Safe City Project. On the contrary, in Karachi, which is a much bigger city, only Rs600 million ($3.57 million) were spent to install cameras. It tells about our priorities for Karachi.”
Though a September 2013 paramilitary operation eliminated much violence from the city, no serious efforts had been made against street crimes, he said.
“Karachi is witnessing a surge in these crimes,” Abbas said. “Most of the criminals have been released on bail for as much as 12 times, but authorities don’t look at this issue scientifically.”
He said the dilapidated infrastructure was also adding to the lack of security for the city’s dwellers: “Karachi, which had few slums in the 1980s, is now home to over 8,000 shanty towns.”
The analyst said the Rangers paramilitary force had been deployed in Karachi as part of a temporary arrangement, but over the last several decades it started policing the city’s neighborhoods, while the police force was never reorganized or restructured to deal with modern-day challenges facing the city.