ABSTRACT
‘VIP culture’ and the provision of policing and security in postcolonial Karachi
This chapter empirically explores the unequal and unfair distribution of police resources in the postcolonial city of Karachi. In post-independence Pakistan, Karachi has suffered from rapid urbanisation, population growth, and underdevelopment. Karachi’s public security apparatus (including the police) has been similarly disorganised and mismanaged. Nevertheless, the police have been expected to grapple with organised crime, terrorism, and ethnopolitical violence. Simultaneously, the police have been burdened by a ‘VIP culture’ that promotes and sponsors an unequal distribution of police resources to benefit the local elite. This not only creates metaphorical barriers between affluent and marginalised communities but also encourages police corruption and informal practices. This chapter argues that selective securitisation processes, driven by Pakistan’s VIP culture and strengthened by the political elite, have been misappropriating the public–police infrastructure, which demonstrates the continuation of the institution’s colonial legacy. This chapter concludes by recommending the decolonising of policing in former colonies.
