Millions of rupees change hands everyday in Karachi, the commercial capital of Pakistan, in the form of ‘bhatta’ or protection money.

The beneficiaries include all sorts of people, from ordinary police constables to officials at the top echelons of power, while the payment is made by hawkers, shopkeepers, motorists, traders, industrialists, land grabbers, and the like.

According to a survey conducted by the Urban Resource Centre (URC), hawkers at the Saddar and Lea Market area pay $590,000 per month as extortion money. The informal sector is a constant and lucrative source of illegal earnings.

"Bhatta, or protection money, is collected by one of the vendors every day and then handed over to employees of traffic police, the (now defunct) Karachi Metropolitan Corporation’s land department, and area station house officer (SHO)," said a police official who requested anonymity.

He said the extortion money is also collected by the employees of the City District Government Karachi (CDGK) and Karachi Electric Supply Corp. Shopkeepers suffer if they do not pay ‘bhatta’ to the police.

"The entire attention of the Preedy police is focused on collecting ‘bhatta’ from vendors," says Mairaj Ahmed Khan, general secretary of Zargran (Jewellers) Welfare Association. "Police mobiles are busy collecting money between 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. and this is the most opportune time for robbers to loot the people."

He says failure to pay ‘bhatta’ results in high repercussions and the police, instead of investigating robberies and apprehending thieves, harass jewellers.