The law and order situation in Karachi city is becoming alarming day by day. The law enforcement agencies and police have no access to hideouts of criminals owing to the inaccessible nature of densely populated areas and, more importantly, because of the political influences in many areas. The people from lower class face hurdles in earning their livelihood due to lack of security. The second most important hurdle in their way is the changing political situation in the country. We have just one model city (to some extent), Islamabad. But what about our other big cities like Peshawar, Lahore, Quetta and Karachi? I have come to know that other countries like Malaysia, Thailand and even India have entirely different strategies for big cities. Our policy managers should emphasize especially on plans for transport, parking, and most important of all, policing. Our police is least trained to tackle crime in the mega cities. May I suggest that the police for capital cities of the provinces should be separated from the rest of the country's police system. -SAMEER MANDHRO, Karachi, via e-mail, July 29.