Plans afoot to take on street criminals and dacoits, says Baqar

Sindh caretaker chief minister Justice (retd) Maqbool Baqar on Thursday said the government has been putting all its efforts into overcoming street criminals in Karachi and dacoits in the riverine area of the province.

“A foolproof strategy is being devised, and I’m sure the innovative and trusted mechanism will succeed in ending dacoit culture from the remaining parts of the province,” Baqar said while addressing the participants of the National Defence University’s (NDU) 25th Security Workshop, led by NDU head Maj Gen Raza Azaid.

The participants comprised current and former members of provincial assemblies, senators, senior civil and military officers, academics, and representatives of civil society. Provincial interim ministers and secretaries, Chief Secretary Dr Fakhre Alam and police chief Riffat Mukhtar attended the programme.

“We are a country of over 200 million people, and by 2025 we’ll have 100 million people in the middle class, thus making Pakistan’s middle class the 10th largest in the world,” said the caretaker CM.

One of the major challenges for any government is to create employment opportunities, and particularly provide the youth with avenues for fulfilment and self-actualisation, he added. He said that keeping in view the security and development nexus, the federal and Sindh governments are using significant resources towards improving access to education and health care.

This is improving connectivity and ensuring the provision of basic amenities, particularly for the inhabitants of cosmopolitan cities like Karachi, to cater to the long-awaited needs of working women, especially with respect to public transport, he added.

He also said that at the same time, the provincial government has also endeavoured to bridge the gap between rural and urban areas by ensuring that agricultural goods get quick access to the markets.

Pakistan’s and Sindh’s governments have launched various bus rapid transit lines in Karachi, with the Green Line already operational, and works on the Yellow and Red lines continuing at an accelerated pace, he added.

Baqar said the improvement in public transport has already begun to yield results: women who were precluded from accepting employment in areas far from their homes are now increasingly accepting such jobs. Similarly, he added, students and others belonging to different segments are beginning to reap the benefits of such policies.

He said that last year Sindh went through devastating floods that displaced the population of 23 districts. Resultantly, he added, the provincial government had to ensure the rehabilitation of those affected by the floods while also ensuring the rehabilitation of roads, the water supply system and other infrastructural facilities.

He also said the government has developed the Dhabeji Special Economic Zone as a priority project under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, adding that the project would facilitate potential investors to establish new enterprises or transfer their facilities to the economic zone.

He pointed out that the contract of the project under public-private partnership has been awarded for development, and that it would be ready in a couple of years to attract industrial output of millions of dollars and create around 100,000 jobs.

Baqar said that on the recommendation of the provincial government, the Centre has approved two new economic zones: one at the Naushahro Feroze Industrial Park and the other at the National Industrial Park Bholari.

He said the provincial government set up Education City over an area of 8,921 acres to established more than 20 educational institutes to equip the youth with modern education.

He also said that a business registration portal has been set up (business.sindh.gov.pk) to enable online registration of businesses with the departments concerned and the Sindh Employees Social Security Institution. “We have waived the fee for registration of industries with the labour department.”