CJP asks: Who controls objectionable material on social media?

KARACHI: The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (SC), Anwar Zaheer Jamali, on Thursday asked the government who controlled the objectionable material on the social media and the government responded that it had no such mechanism in place.

During the hearing of the case pertaining to Karachi’s law and order under a suo moto notice, he announced to stay out of the larger bench after extensive criticism on him and his family on the social media. “It is not appropriate to stay on the bench further as my family and I have been a target of criticism on social media,” said Justice Jamali in his remarks.

On the other hand, the bench took due deliberations on the CCTV system of the city. This particular topic had emerged as of pivotal importance after terrorists had kidnapped Barrister Syed Owais Ali Shah and transported him to Tank for their escape into Afghanistan but he was safely recovered after the Pak Army troopers deployed on a check-post killed the kidnappers and got Shah, the son of Sindh High Court Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, released. No footage was available to record the kidnapping of Shah.

Sindh Chief Secretary Siddique Memon presented a detailed report in the SC on the installed CCTVs in the port city of Karachi.

According to the report, three different agencies in Karachi operated and controlled 2,321 CCTVs and these agencies are the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC), the Sindh Police and the Sindh government. The reports reads that the KMC had in 2008 installed 168 CCTVs of 2 mega pixel, 910 of 2 mega pixel in 2014 and 225 CCTVs of 5 mega pixel in 2015. In 2011, the IT Department of Sindh Police had installed 198 CCTVs on 46 locations and those were of 5 mega pixel. The Sindh Police had also installed 280 CCTVs of 2 mega pixel in 2012 but today only 17 were in working condition.

The Sindh chief minister had on the recommendation of the Sindh Finance Ministry and on a summary of KMC approved to place all the KMC CCTVs under the Sindh Police control. The report claimed that the technical committee was responsible for awarding a contract to the CCTV installation firm for installing CCTVs of 2 mega pixel and that survey and consultation reports were missing in this context. The report further reads that the Sindh government has earmarked Rs500 million for installation of CCTVs on 164 different locations from the Karachi airport and for this the Inspector General of Sindh Police has constituted three committees.

All CCTVs presently controlled by different institutions would be placed under the Sindh Police control from October 2016 so that traffic management, law and order and security measures could be improved under one roof. On one occasion, the attorney general apprised the SC that steps for providing the Sindh Police with a GSM locator facility was in the offing.