Who, Me!!!…Not Mugged Yet; Are You Sure You Live In Karachi!!!!!!

I hardly know any of my friends, who have not been mugged on the streets of Karachi. Every person has his or her terrifying story; the feeling of insecurity is the order of the day.

You go on shopping you get mugged, you stop on signal you get mugged, you visit someone you get mugged, you walk on street you get mugged, if your car broke, you get mugged…..there are so many situations I can go on and on. I was mugged yesterday on Main Shahrah e Faisal, lost my brand new Blackberry Curve along with few thousand bucks & It was my third such encounter in Karachi.

Feeling of insecurity leads to stress and it is one of the most common commodities produced in Pakistan. People, surroundings, society, politics, economy, media etc everything add their bit of contribution. The by product of stress is the social abnormality all around. Posttraumatic stress disorder (abbreviated PTSD) is an anxiety disorder that can develop after exposure to one or more traumatic events that threatened or caused great physical harm. It is a severe and ongoing emotional reaction to an extreme psychological trauma. Safety is one of the basic needs, no one denies, living life with feeling of insecurity creates extreme level of stress disorder. Many of us living in Karachi must be going through same, but compromised to live with it. Lately one of my friends house was robbed twice, she lost her life long work and over thousands of precious pictures stored on Laptop. One of my friends husband was made hostage in his car and finally was mugged, leaving him in trauma. Other colleague also lost his blackberry on a bridge on main Shahrah e Faisal “its like Broad Way of Karachi’. Helplessness, fear, chaos, lack of governance is creating extreme abnormal behavior. Whole Karachi is engulfed with fear and insecurity, we are just living each day. Everyday on one side thoughts of leaving Pakistan occupies mind, on the other had career, family and friends stops. Whole nation is robbed, we are mugged directly on streets, indirectly by state, bureaucracy, military, police, politicians, cleric , you name it. At times I feel, an animal living in Namibian Jungle would feel more freedom than a common person living in Pakistan.