The Economist Intelligence Unit has published a list of top 60 safest cities in the world with only one Pakistani city appearing in it, and that, too, at the bottom.
The Safest City Index 2017 used 49 indicators including digital security, health security and personal security to rank the 60 cities.
Pakistan’s financial hub did not perform significantly well in any of the indicators but it was the worst when it came to personal security.
“Although it performs poorly across all of the categories, it was dragged down by a very low level of personal security (60th), the report notes.
“This is a reflection of a number of factors, but the main reason is that among the cities in the index, it experiences by far the most frequent and most severe terrorist attacks.”
The report also notes that security is falling in most of the cities.
Source: The Economist Intelligence Unit
“With two exceptions (Madrid, which is up 13 points and Seoul, up six), cities tend to have fallen in the index since 2015 (for example, New York is down 11, Lima is down 13, Johannesburg is down nine, Ho Chi Minh City is down ten and Jakarta is down 13).”
The last such report was published in 2015 that ranked 50 countries with no Pakistani city making the cut.
Karachi’s entry in the list, at the last spot, coincides with its low ranking in the Liveability Index, also published by The Economist Intelligence Unit.
The Index, which put Melbourne as the most liveable city for seventh year in a row, marks Karachi as the sixth least liveable city in the world.
The Safest City Index 2017 has been received with a hint of optimism in Pakistan, with the government boasting it as a positive development.
However, skepticism exists, too.
The list also has two Australian cities in the top-10 with Melbourne securing fifth and Sydney getting seventh spot.
Tokyo was ranked as the safest city, followed by Singapore, Osaka and Toronto.
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