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Friday March 29, 2024

MQM-P assails Sindh govt for failing to control lawlessness in Karachi

By Our Correspondent
December 21, 2022

Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) Deputy Convener and former Karachi mayor Wasim Akhtar said on Tuesday that the current law and order situation in the city has made life miserable for the residents because the Sindh government has completely failed to control the lawlessness and protect the citizens.

Akhtar was addressing a presser at the MQM-P’s head office in Bahadurabad, along with members of the party’s coordination committee. He said that on a daily basis the people of the city are receiving the dead bodies of their young children who are being killed just for the sake of a mobile phone worth a few thousand rupees. However, he added, the rulers have been enjoying their power and do not care about this city.

He also said that the non-local police officials who have been deployed in Karachi are involved in street crime and extortion. The irony is that the city police chief asked the people to surrender what they have to the robbers, he added.

However, he pointed out, the residents of the city have been asking what the Rangers are doing, and if the people should start keeping weapons to defend themselves. The MQM-P leader asked why the paramilitary force does not train the Sindh police when the Sindh police have already accepted their failure.

“We’re participating in the funerals of young people every day. In the coming days we’ll also protest with those families whose children have been killed in robberies. They’re waiting for justice.”

Akhtar said that in the presence of around 65,000 police officials and 13,000 Rangers soldiers in Karachi, the families who have lost their loved ones should consider those officials responsible because they are drawing salaries from the taxes paid by the people of the city.

He claimed that the law and order situation in other provinces is much better. Lahore has activated its Safe City project, but the Sindh police still need private cameras installed at houses and shops to catch habitual criminals, he remarked.

“The MQM-P had installed CCTV cameras at various places in Karachi. Today the command and control system of the city is in a state of disrepair due to the incompetence of the provincial government.”

Criticising the performance of the Sindh police, he said that the job of the police seems to be only collecting money by stopping poor motorcyclists in the city, while in their presence, 7,500 motorbikes have been stolen or snatched in a month.

Akhtar appealed to Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah to take immediate action on this issue. Addressing Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, the ex-mayor said that the CM holds the home department portfolio, so he is responsible for all these incidents. “The CM should take notice of the city police chief’s statement.”

‘For LG elections’

Reacting to Akhtar’s statements, Sindh Information and Transport Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon said that the MQM-P is the Pakistan Peoples Party’s coalition partner in the federal government, and “we have agreed on some points, so we talk in the parameters of the agreed upon issues”.

He said that they do take Akhtar’s statements seriously. However, Memon pointed out, the MQM-P leader had not raised such issues in any meeting. The information minister wondered if Akhtar’s statements were issued with the permission of his party’s leadership.

He said the statements might have been issued in the context of next month’s local government elections so as to restore the party’s reputation in the public eye and to motivate the party’s workers.

Memon claimed that the law and order situation in Karachi was much better than it had been in the past. He said that now no one can shut down the city in 10 minutes on a call for strike. He pointed out that extortion and dead bodies in sacks have stopped. No one can set buses on fire any more, he claimed. He said that crime rates in metropolitan cities remain high throughout the world. However, he clarified, this does not mean that he is justifying the situation.

The minister claimed that Karachi is a safe city with a better law and order situation than that of Peshawar, Quetta and Lahore. He said the Sindh government had allocated 100 per cent of the funds in the budget for the Safe City project, adding that work on the project was under way. He also said that the police are trying to control street crime in the city.