The Jamaat-e-Islami’s Sindh chapter has said that the government and state institutions have failed to establish peace in the province, and that despite allocating an annual budget of over Rs16 billion for peace and security, the residents are still longing for peace.
The party said in a statement that the killing of more than 50 people by robbers in the past few months in Karachi alone is a matter of concern, and highlights the severe failure of the provincial government.
JI condemned the statement of the home minister regarding street crimes being usual stuff, and termed it shameful. The party said that the reasons for unrest in the upper districts of the province include the fertile Kutcha lands and oil wells.
“While ministers and influential individuals are protected in fortresses, and move around with police protocols, the public is left at the mercy of bandits,” read the statement.
From Karachi to Kashmore, the entire province has been figuratively leased to bandits, igniting a fire of unrest and making life miserable for the people, with street crimes in cities and banditry in rural areas, said the JI.
The religious party demanded that the provincial government take serious measures that are free of corruption in order to end the rule of bandits and to establish peace.
JI leader Mumtaz Hussain Sehto welcomed the order of the chief justice of the Sindh High Court to ensure law and order in the province within a month and to take action against those involved in serious offences.
Sehto said peace and the end of banditry in the province are not possible until the networks of bandits, cruel landlords and corrupt elements within the police are dismantled. He claimed that the patrons of bandits enjoy the protection of the provincial government, which is why despite spending billions of rupees on operations in addition to the peace and security budget, the government has been unable to eradicate banditry in the province.
He said that now even the motorways and roads are not safe for the public. The government’s authority is nowhere to be seen, he added.A week ago, Sindh Home Minister Ziaul Hassan Lanjar had stated that the law and order situation in Karachi and Sindh was not as bad as it was being portrayed. Addressing a press conference, he said Karachi was much peaceful that what it was during 2008-2013 when bodies were found in gunny bags.
He said the newly posted Sindh inspector general of police would soon formally launch an operation against bandits in the riverine belt of the province. He said the provincial government would do its best to prevent the instances of street crimes in Karachi in the shortest possible time. He assured the people of Sindh that the law and order situation would be normalised very soon.
Lanjar said that police would be held accountable for crime incidents in the province, and dacoits in Sindh would be dealt with an iron fist. He also asked the media to boost the morale of police. To a question, the home minister said he enjoyed the fullest support of the Sindh chief minister to discharge his ministerial duties.
