Naeem slams Sindh govt and police over rising crime in Karachi

KARACHI: The Karachi chapter of the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) has berated the Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) government in Sindh and police department for their failure to tackle ever-rising roadside violent crimes in the metropolis and demanded that the authorities bring reforms to the police department.

Karachi JI chief Hafiz Naeemur Rehman made this demand on Thursday while commenting on a report issued by the Citizens-Police Liaison Committee (CPLC), which showed a large number of crimes had taken place in the megacity during the last month. He also quoted a statement by Karachi Additional Inspector General of Police Javed Aalam Odho who had confessed that the crime rate had increased in the city by 16 per cent.

The JI leader said that the confession by the city police chief regarding the increase in crime rate was evident of the failure of police in Karachi — a city that housed around 30 million individuals and was dubbed as the economic nerve of the country.

Quoting the CPLC report, Rehman said that more than 7,000 roadside robberies were reported in Karachi in the month of January alone, whereas 13 precious lives were lost and 50 others were injured for offering resistance during robberies.

The JI leader added that over 227 four-wheel vehicles and 4,223 motorcycles were stolen, in addition to snatchings of 420 motorcycles and 2,379 mobile phones. He added that the CPLC report only carried the number of reported incidents and it was an open secret in Karachi that the actual number of crimes was much higher than the reported numbers due to poor performance of the police and lack of trust of citizens in the police department.

The police department had practically collapsed because of corruption and continuous political interference, Rehman lamented. He said that his party had been demanding police reforms since long but the PPP government always showed lack of political will in this regard, apparently because a corrupt police department suited the manner of its politics.

The JI demanded that the authorities completely reform the police department in order to restore the trust of citizens in the state. He also reiterated the JI’s demand for inducting local citizens in the police department in Karachi and bring the ratio of locals to up to 80 per cent in the force. The JI leader also demanded that the authorities purge the police of corrupt personnel and black sheep.