Speakers at a seminar stressed the need for expediting the process of social development to bring peace and prosperity particularly in Karachi. The theme of the moot was "Law and Order issues in Karachi" organised by Commecs Institute of Business and Emerging Science (CIBES) at its city campus here on Saturday.
Speakers were Zubair Motiwala, Chairman Sindh Board of Investment; Ahmad Chinoy, CPLC Chief; Dr Huma Baqai, Chairperson, Social Science IBA; Mustafa Kamal, former city Nazim Karachi and Sirajuddin Aziz, President, Habib Metropolitan Bank. Presiding over the seminar, Zubair Motiwala said the controlled law and order situation was imperative for the revival of the country's economy. He said the commerce sector was severely suffering and the fact of attracting future investment continued to develop in an unstable environment.
Ahmad Chinoy termed the Taliban factor, land mafias and the absence of local government as major causes for deteriorating law and order situation of the city. He also urged the authority concerned to conduct technical education courses for law enforcers and make them enable to encounter with modern crimes. He said there was a need of developing area intelligence network (AIN) and national vehicle authority (NVA) to minimise the crime ratio in the city.
Dr Huma in her address held all political parties responsible for law and order issues in Karachi, saying the city, which was identified as most business-friendly by World Bank in its report in 2007, had now become the most precarious city in the world because of politico-business interests. She said that some 7,000 community schools had been closed and around 700 teachers were stopped teaching because of ethnicity.
She also urged the authorities to constitute independent reconciliation commission to cater the trust deficit in this multi-ethnic city. Meanwhile, former city mayor Mustafa Kamal was of the view that the city's law and order situation was directly proportional with the livelihood opportunities in the city.