Opposition demands concrete steps to curb rising crimes

The opposition in the Sindh Assembly on Wednesday expressed concern over the unsatisfactory law and order situation across the province and urged the government to take concrete measures to curb the increasing crimes, as they held a discussion on an adjournment motion of MQM-Pakistan lawmaker Muhammad Hussain.

However, Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah, who holds the additional portfolio of the home department, termed the law and order situation of the province satisfactory. He said the government takes law and order seriously.

Shah said law enforcement agencies had rendered innumerable sacrifices for restoring peace, adding that the opposition had also played its part in it. He said that although incidents of street crime had decreased in the province, the government is not satisfied with the situation, adding that more steps would be taken to improve it.

“There is not a single [terrorism] incident in the province, including Amjad Sabri and Wali Babar’s martyrdoms and the Sehwan bomb blast, which has been untraceable.” In contrast, the perpetrators of the Army Public School Peshawar attack are yet to be traced, said the CM, and nothing has been done in the case of those involved in the Bannu jailbreak.

He said Sindh’s civil society had moved the court against the replacement of the police chief, but Punjab’s civil society did not do such a thing after the province’s IGPs were removed, while the same situation was observed in Islamabad.

He claimed that during the past five years not a single case has been instituted by the provincial government against its political opponents, and that the police rules are being amended on the court orders.

MPA Hussain said that this year’s law and order figures of Karachi have been highly unsatisfactory, as 209 motor vehicles and over 13,000 mobile phones were stolen during a month, while there have been several ransom kidnappings.

“People are being deprived of jewellery at their doorsteps and of cash inside ATM booths. Cars are being stopped on roads to commit crimes,” he said, adding that the government should not be happy over a nominal decrease in the rate of crime. “These statistics show fewer crimes because people fear lodging complaints.”

The legislator said the system of local policing should be revived in the province, as locals are not being recruited in the policing service, adding that up to 90 per cent of the SHOs are not locals, which is the main reason behind the unsatisfactory law and order situation.

MQM-P’s parliamentary party leader Kanwar Naveed Jameel claimed that the police have been patronising crimes, adding that 310 policemen and two SPs were involved in organised crimes, and that these figures were given by the Karachi police chief.

He claimed that the Sanghar police has been brazenly patronising the sale and purchase of stolen motorcycles in the district on a weekly basis. He also said shops are being robbed in the city on a regular basis.

Jameel said Karachi is not being policed through a local force, as people with domiciles in Mohmand, Bannu, Rahim Yar Khan and other places have been recruited in the Karachi police. “It is amazing that the task of our city’s security has been given to others. Isn’t it a conspiracy?”

MQM-P lawmaker Khawaja Izharul Hassan also claimed that the police have been patronising different criminal activities, saying that the moment the police stop their patronage, the crimes would stop.

He said that in 2008, the provincial government had allocated Rs21 billion for law and order, adding that this allocation has now been increased to over Rs100 billion. Quoting a statement of the Sindh Rangers chief, PTI legislator Khurrum Sher Zaman said Karachi has 31,000 police officials but only 14,000 perform their duties.

Zaman said that most of these 14,000 personnel are assigned VIP security duties, adding that young, energetic and dynamic officials are assigned VIP duties while aged personnel have been left for the rest of the people.

GDA lawmaker Nusrat Sehar Abbasi said the law and order situation has been bad from Karachi to Kashmore, adding that Karachi that houses millions of people should have hundreds of thousands of CCTV cameras.

She said that there is not a single legislator in the House who can be appointed home minister, adding that people do not feel safe and the poor do not file police complaints about crimes committed against them.