Islamabad : A ‘Sheesha’ centre is being openly run in the heart of Jinnah Super Market since last eight years without any hindrance thus making a mockery of law and inability of the Islamabad administration and police.
A restaurant, occupies half floor on the second storey of a main plaza in the Jinnah Super Market and is said to have backing of an Inspector of Police who has befriended a few media-men. Never in the past 8 years, this cafe has been closed or has not served the ‘sheesha’ to its customers, said a regular visitor. He added that when policemen are backing such a centre, who dares to raid it? Interestingly, an eye-wash raid was done on the centre recently but within ten minutes, the police returned the ‘hukkahs’ and flavours to the administration of the restaurant.
The district administration of ICT launched a crackdown against such centres last month but only the above café was spared by the police for allegedly run by their fellow. A letter dated 31st October 2018 by the office of the district magistrate also orders the police to shutdown illegal ‘Sheesha’ cafes in the town but only one café avoids such shutdowns.
The Supreme Court in 2015 had ordered the government to close down all the ‘sheesha’ centres in the country and there are hardly any remaining except those having the backing of so-called mighty and powerful who have good connections in the administration and are informed in advance before a raid to hide all the ‘sheesha’ and flavours.
A regular visitor of the café says that a ‘sheesha’ session is charged between Rs1500 to Rs2500 claiming that it is a banned item and only they have the courage to serve it. “If any party leaves for raiding us, we are informed beforehand and we manage things”, said the manager of the café to a regular visitor.
