Former Vice President of FPCCI Atif Ikram Sheikh on increasing poverty in the country resulting in an alarming rise in crimes, particularly in urban centres such as Islamabad, Karachi, and Lahore. He said that growing poverty, unemployment and hunger are damaging our society as the promotion of the powerful elite continues.

Atif Ikram Sheikh, who has also served as President of ICCI and Chairman of PVMA, said in a statement issued today that Karachi, the centre of trade and industry, is suffering from lawlessness. Karachi is witnessing an alarming increase in street crime, and people are shot dead by desperate robbers for putting up resistance, he added.

He said the business community was already worried about the deteriorating economy, and now the law-and-order situation is hurting them.

The plight of people in other urban centres, including Punjab’s capital Lahore, is equally thoughtful as robbers and gangsters rule streets while our leaders are occupied with politics.

He noted with concern that with the unprecedented rise in inflation, large-scale unemployment and growing hopelessness, many are left with no option but to beg and steal.

The situation is also stoking car and bike snatchings, drug dealings, abductions for ransom, and prostitution as the national political failure has intensified.

Many politicians have claimed that their political parties will steer Pakistan out of the crisis, undertake massive uplift programs, and put Pakistan on the road to progress and prosperity. Still, it seems not the case, he observed.

Authorities should go into the causes that have created this demon. No cash support or other such programmes can be more useful than putting the national economy back on its footing.