Pakistan: Activists hold protest over labour leader's disappearance in Karachi

Islamabad, Jan 12 Activists held a protest after a young trade unionist went missing in Korangi Industrial Area in Pakistan's Karachi, with trade union leaders alleging that he was taken away by the police at the request of an influential industrialist since he had been speaking against forced retrenchment at an industrial unit, local media reported.

The protest was held outside Karachi Press Club on Sunday on the call given by the National Trade Union Federation Pakistan (NTUF-P) after Iqbal Abro went missing. During the protests, the participants carried portraits of Abro and demanded his release from "illegal custody," Pakistan's leading daily 'Dawn' reported.

Speaking to reporters, Nasir Mehmood, Comrade Gul Rehman and other trade union leaders alleged that Awami Colony police kidnapped Iqbal Abro, tortured him and later took him to an unknown place. They termed it an enforced disappearance and accused an influential industrialist for being involved in it as the young activist had been raising his voice about the rights of the workers who had been retrenched by the industrial unit without justification.

They announced that a petition had been filed in the Sindh High Court. The NTUF-P leaders warned that they would decide their next step at a labour conference scheduled to be held on soon if Abro is not released.

Recently, police statistics have shown a decline in reported street crimes in Pakistan’s Karachi from 71,105 cases in 2024 to over 64,000 in 2025. However, the same official data underline the extent to which abnormality has become normal in the country’s largest city, a report said.

According to police data, 6,683 vehicles were hijacked at gunpoint in 2025, including 302 cars and 6,381 motorbikes, compared to 8,370 such incidents in 2024. As many as 39,934 vehicles were stolen in 2025, including 1,813 cars and 38,121 motorbikes, down from 43,382 in the previous year, according to a report published in the 'Business Recorder'.

Phone snatching incidents continued to occur frequently across Karachi. As per the same data, 19,353 mobile phones were snatched in 2024, highlighting the persistent scale of street crime in the city.

An editorial in the 'Business Recorder' noted that Karachi’s police statistics, released at the turn of the year, were intended to show improvement. While they do reflect a decline in reported street crimes from 71,105 in 2024 to over 64,000 in 2025, the same figures reveal what the editorial described as the real indictment of life in Pakistan’s largest city.

The editorial pointed out that more than 46,000 citizens lost their cars or motorbikes in 2025, while over 17,000 people were deprived of their mobile phones during the year.

“A ‘reduction’ that still leaves tens of thousands dispossessed at gunpoint or through theft is not a success story. It is a measure of how low the baseline has sunk,” the editorial said.

Experts have cautioned against drawing sweeping conclusions from a comparison of only two years, noting that official figures capture only what is recorded in police registers and not the full extent of crime. They flagged the absence of credible research and the lack of a holistic data ecosystem that includes inputs from other stakeholders such as paramedics and hospitals.

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