School children in Karachi starting this August will face sever problem in getting to the schools.

School buses, vans and other form a transport will not be able to reach many homes starting in August.  The reason is very simple many localities have put up gates on the street of Karachi to prevent street crime in bid to block vehicle access (so that criminal elements cannot enter the localities in cars or bikes).

However these gates which started showing up in 2007 have now become a permanent fixture. After a while many of these gates are locked so that no one can open them.

The average citizen has no say in the installation and location of  where the gate must be put up. The average citizen tends not to get involved in the housing cooperative affairs as he/she thinks it will create unnecessary burden on them socially and financially.

The gates are put up usually by various Housing cooperatives, society unions, or a group wise and influential men of particular street or locality. These few men who control any housing cooperative society are free to pick and choose where the gates go. 

The people who usually fund these gates, their kids do not use public or pooled transport. 

This July the gate installation has peaked in many area so starting August man school vans, buses and car pools will simply not be able to reach the children they need to pick up for school.

More over the residents of the such localities are then forced to pay a security fee.

The government must prevent this from happening. The courts must take notice of this and order all the gates to be taken down and police must be empowered to fight crime. Else Karachi will be divided into fiefdoms of urban power.