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Fix-It campaigner arrested for trying to ‘litter outside CM House’

By our correspondents
February 26, 2016

Karachi

Social activist Alamgir Khan of the Fix-It campaign fame - launched to get the chief minister’s attention towards uncovered manholes in the metropolis - was arrested on Thursday by police officials after he attempted to set up a symbolic garbage bin outside the CM House.

Khan was on board a tractor and was moving towards the PIDC traffic intersection towards the red zone when police personnel took him and his driver into custody.

“I have brought this dustbin with me to put garbage in it and install it outside the CM’s house so that he could also smell and witness the filth the rest of the city’s citizens are surrounded in,” Khan had said moments before he was whisked away by the law enforcers.

An FIR was later registered against Khan in the Civil Lines police station for disrupting traffic and littering outside the CM House.

A video posted on the campaigner’s Facebook page showed Khan and his driver riding a tractor along with a garbage filled trolley on Sharea Faisal, heading towards the CM House, to install what he said was a symbolic garbage bin.

Khan’s driver was detained by policemen and also beaten with sticks.

The campaigner on approaching the police officials to get the driver released was also taken into custody; both of them were taken to a nearby police station.

As part of the Fix It campaign, a group of Karachiites led by Khan had been spray painting the portrait of Sindh CM on major roads of the metropolis which invoke the ire of thousands everyday due to their derelict condition.

Khan who holds a senior position in the Pakistan Tehreek-e- Insaf (PTI’s) Karachi division insisted the campaign was purely apolitical.

With the chief minister’s face drawn next to gaping potholes, ditches and heaps of piles on the side of the metropolis’ busy arteries, the aim of the project was to attract the attention of the authorities towards the issues that affect the residents, the campaigners claimed.

Khan had said the campaign was aimed at provincial leaders who had no idea about problems faced by residents of Karachi as the politicians themselves reside in elite areas where community problems were rare.