Consider this: The cost of a life in Pakistan’s former capital, the largest city of the country and the economic hub of the state, Karachi, is a meagre two thousand rupees.

Consider more: That price comes down to the tenth of its value in Pakistan’s present capital – the elitist city of the country and the bureaucratic hub of the state – Islamabad, where poverty causes a murder over mere two hundred rupees.

And if you thought that was ridiculously low, the price further halves in Naudero, Sindh, where a dispute over a paltry one hundred rupees (less than a dollar), can claim your life.

Admittedly, the murder in Naudero, and the one in Islamabad could not have been prevented, notwithstanding the security apparatus, because where frustration and tempers claim lives, there are no solutions except eradicating poverty.

But the one in Karachi, the murder of a trader in broad daylight, claimed by a local extortionist, could very much have been avoided.

Yet, ignoring it, like all the excesses of the past, the primary debate for the country stays the rigging, and the weddings of the political entities. Our police has been rendered a sheer spectator in the city that once shown lights, and all we do is entertain ourselves at the eight o'clock cavilling of the jokers – throngs of them – that call themselves our leaders.

A friend from the Quaid’s city narrated how she clutches her handbag every time she stops at a signal, fearing, nay expecting, herself to be robbed.

I thought she was being comically paranoid.

A few weeks later, a group of friends visiting the city were robbed twice, two days apart, both the times on the same road.

Bhatta khori (extortion), theft, robberies, kidnappings, murders – you name it and Karachi is plagued by it. Gangs, enjoying political patronage, operate with impunity and the police resorts to only palliative measures to provide a semblance of order.