Mayor wants police under his authority

Karachi Mayor Waseem Akhtar has said the police and other organisations should be under the elected mayor and only then could the problems of the city be resolved.

“The problems are piling up with each passing day, the law and order problem is the biggest issue and street crime has reached an alarming proportion in the city and youngsters without jobs are playing into the hands of criminals,” he said while talking to The News on Thursday.

The mayor stressed that local policing was essential. When his attention was drawn to the Sindh government’s assertion that such demands were against the constitution, the mayor said: “What about the violation of Article 140 (a) being done in the SLGO 2013? It is a clear violation of the constitution.”

Former city administrator Mustafa Kamal had also demanded that the police and the traffic police should be under the elected city administrator, but the demand led to a political upheaval. Mayor Akhtar was of the opinion that youngsters should be imparted training on modern lines, particularly in intelligence-gathering. He maintained that the KDA, the KWSB, the Sindh Building Control Authority should also be placed under the elected mayor.