KARACHI: Sindh ChiefMinister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Wednesday approved the summary to grant special powers to the Pakistan Rangers that had expired on January 10. After the approval of the chief minister, the home department has moved a summary to the Ministry of Interior for necessary action. Presiding over the Sindh cabinet meeting at the Sindh Secretariat, the Sindh CM said that his government would never allow terrorists and religious fanatics to keep playing with the lives of innocent people even if the federal government refuses to cooperate, which is evident from the response of the Ministry of Interior over the 94 Madaris involved in supporting terrorism. The meeting was attended by all the provincial ministers, including Nisar Khuhro, Manzoor Wassan, Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani and others. The advisers and special assistants were specially invited. Briefing the cabinet on the response of theMinistry of Interior to ban 94 Madaris allegedly involved in promoting terrorism, the chief minister said that in the Apex Committee, the list of the Madaris was presented. The committee was told that 94 Madariswere involved in terrorist activities. They had presented solid evidences gathered from terrorists arrested by Law Enforcement Agencies and they had revealed startling disclosures against the said Madaris. After interrogation, the concerned agenciesworked hard to collect solid evidences and on the basis of that information, evidence and recommendation, a list of 94Madaris spreading over 46 pages was sent to the Ministry of Interior. “I was quite surprised that when an attempt was made to politicise the issue instead of taking action as recommended by the government,” he said and added, “Comewhatmaywewill go ahead and keep crushing the terrorists wherever they live or nurture because we are the worst affected people of terrorism. At the hands of terrorists, we have lost our leadership, we have sacrificed the lives of our law enforcement agencies
personnel and we have sacrificed our innocent citizens, including the children. Enough is enough.” He added: “It shows how much serious the federal government is to take action against terrorists.” He told the cabinet that in reply to the 46-page letter, the Ministry of Interior has sent a three-page reply and now “we have sent themthe reply of their letter and would see and definitely see what action they are going to take and this would ascertain their seriousness to eliminate terrorism from the country.” The cabinet meeting started with a briefing by IG Police AD Khowja on law and order. Giving comparative performance of 2015/16, he said that all heinous crimes have come down considerably. He added that terrorism has come down tominus 15 percent, extortion minus 27 percent, kidnappings for ransomby minus 12 percent, target killings by minus 27 percent, murder by minus 29 percent, and dacoities by minus 21 percent. AD Khowja, quoting the SRSS report, said that sectarian violence has decreased in KPK and Sindhwhile it has increased in FATA, Punjab and Balochistan. He added that 60 percent decrease has been witnessed in causalities of law enforcement agencies personnel. The chief minister said that itwas encouraging but there was a huge hue and cry against the street crime. Why it has increased and why the police have failed to control it. The IG said that that there was minus 24 percent decrease in mobile snatchings, minus 34 percent decrease in four wheelers snatching, minus 14 percent four wheeler theft, minus 13 percent decrease in two wheelers snatching and only two wheelers theft has increased by 14 percent. He added that in 2015, some 21,028 mobile phones were snatched while in 2016 the snatching was recorded at 16,010. Similarly, therewere 336 incidents of four wheelers snatching and in 2016 it was recorded at 221. The fourwheelers theft in 2015was 1,805while in 2016 it was at 1,559. The snatching of two wheelers was 2,843 in 2015 and it declined to 2,473 in 2016 but the theft of two wheelers which was 18,087 in 2015 increased to 22,358 in 2016. On this, the chief minister expressing his displeasure directed the IG to take strict action and instruct all his police officers, including SHOs to control the street crime. “We can’t be happy merely on the declined figures of criminal activities but it is our responsibility to bring it down to zero. The people of this city have seen a lot of blood and now I want to smiles and confidences on their faces,” he said and asked the IG police tomake all his officers accountable. Replying to a question of the chief minister, the IG said that there were 15 police stations worst-affected by the street crime. They include Gulshan-i- Iqbal, Shahrae-i-Faisal, Ferozabad, Aziz Bhatti, Preedy, Zaman Town, Korangi, Mobina Town, Taimuriya, Korangi Industrial Area, Defence, New Town , Gulistan-i-Jauhar, Clifton and Azizabad. On this, the chief minister said that the homework done by the IG was commendable but now “I want results even if you have to start removing non-performing SHOs and other officers,” he said and directed him to keep sending him the performance of the worst affected police stations on regular basis. The IGP told the cabinet that Karachi Police had identified 53 hotspots with regard to street crime. These spots were being strengthened by deploying appropriate manpower and resources. He added that community based policing had been established at Bahadurabad, Ferozeabad, North Nazimabad and Korangi Insutrial Area. Meanwhile, the Home department had floated a proposal to the cabinet for granting permission to issue new arms licenses. Briefing the cabinet, Home Secretary Shakeel Mangnijo said that 1,063,315 arms licenses have been issued throughout the province. The home department has received 473,347 arms licenses for registration; of them 198,426 have revalidated/registered and still over 500,000 licenses have not been filed for registrationwhich the department considered as cancelled. The chief minister said that permission forissuing new licenses could not be granted now. However, he formed a committee comprising Burhan Chandio, Qasim Shah and Dr SikandarMendhro to reviewthe policy of granting arms licenses.