According to a July 11 Forbes Adviser list of three of the riskiest cities, Karachi — the capital city of the Pakistani province of Sindh — was second just behind Venezuela’s Caracas, which had a score of 100 out of 100, while Myanmar’s Yangon ranked third with a score of 91.67 out of 100 … writes Dr Sakariya Kareem
Pakistan’s largest city Karachi has been ranked as the second riskiest city for tourists with a rating of 93.12 out of 100.
According to a July 11 Forbes Adviser list of three of the riskiest cities, Karachi — the capital city of the Pakistani province of Sindh — was second just behind Venezuela’s Caracas, which had a score of 100 out of 100, while Myanmar’s Yangon ranked third with a score of 91.67 out of 100.
Pakistan’s leading English the Dawn reported, citing the news, that the city of over 20 million people had the highest personal security risk, reflecting risk from crime, violence, terrorist threats, natural disasters, and economic vulnerabilities.
Karachi had the second-worst (level 3, reconsider travel) travel safety rating from the US State Department, the ranking said, adding that the metropolis had the fourth-highest infrastructure security risk, reflecting the availability and quality of city infrastructure.
To uncover the most and least risky cities for tourists, Forbes Advisor said it compared 60 international cities across seven key metrics.
However, the ranking has named Singapore as the safest city to travel, while Japan’s Tokyo and Canada’s Toronto ranked second and third safest city for tourists, respectively.
Harassment of tourists and alleged assaults on them in Karachi, which has a reputation for being dangerous for foreign travellers, came to the headlines many times in the recent past.
Earlier in April, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) noted that the law-and-order situation in Karachi, Pakistan’s bustling financial capital, had “deteriorated alarmingly”.
The HRCP pointed out that in 2023, “tens of thousands of street crimes were registered by the police” wherein over a hundred people lost their lives, and the first half of 2024 has followed the same pattern.
Quoting data, the HRCP stated that street criminals shot at least 250 Karachiites dead and injured 1,052 others between 2022 and March 28, 2024.
“In 2022, the number of people killed by muggers increased to 111, and in 2023, 108 people were killed during robbery resistance, and 469 were injured by robbers,” said the HRCP, quoting the Karachi police.
At least 3,953 mobile phones were snatched at gunpoint in Karachi during the first two months of 2024, and during the same period, 46 cars and 1,537 motorbikes were stolen by criminals.
A senior official of Karachi police commented that there was an “increasing trend of street crime and kidnapping for ransom in Karachi’s Larkana and Sukkur divisions.”
Earlier this month, Pakistan’s Geo News reported, quoting data from Sindh’s Citizen Police Liaison Committee (CPLC), that at least 5,288 crimes were reported in Karachi in June as the city’s law-and-order situation continues to deteriorate.
The report also revealed that at least 40 people were killed due to violence in various areas of the city last month (June).
According to Numbeo, a Serbian crowd-sourced online database of perceived consumer prices, real property prices, and quality of life metrics, Karachi’s crime index — an estimation of the overall level of crime — is 56.59, and safety index — the opposite of crime index — is 43.41.
As per Numbeo, the city’s level of crime (66.09), worries being mugged or robbed (66.35), property crimes such as vandalism and theft (61.01), and violent crimes such as assault and armed robbery (66.25) are ‘high’, while Karachi’s corruption and bribery rate is marked ‘very high’ (82.67).
Safety walking alone during daylight in Karachi is rated ‘moderate’ (53.03), while safety walking alone during night is marked ‘low’ (30.00), as per Numbeo.
According to The Diplomat, Karachi, which was referred to as the “City of Lights” in the 1960s and 1970s because of its vibrant nightlife, has now got a spot on the list of the most dangerous cities, and in 2014, the city located on the coast of the Arabian Sea ranked as the world’s sixth-most dangerous city for crime.
Karachi has repeatedly appeared in lists of “unlivable” cities, and incidentally, it is the only Pakistani city ranked on such indexes.
Karachi was named among the least safe cities in the world by the Economist Intelligence Unit in 2017.
The Economic Intelligence, the research and analysis division of the Economist Group, ranked Karachi among the top five “least liveable” urban centres in the world, according to the Dawn