SHC asks govt to respond to plea against rampant street crime

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Wednesday issued notices to the provincial police chief, home secretary and others to file comments on a petition seeking the court to direct the government and law enforcement agencies to take action to control rampant street crime across Karachi.

Muzammil Mumtaz said in his petition that street crime had been increasing across the city and citizens were being deprived of their valuables. He said muggers were targeting citizens unchecked by police and other law enforcement agencies.

He added that several people had lost their lives or been injured during resistance to the mugging bids, but the law enforcement agencies had failed to protect citizens. The petitioner said that many incidents had been reported in the East district, especially in the Landhi and Korangi areas, but action taken by the police so far was unsatisfactory.

He also accused the investigation agencies of being dishonest, saying that police’s investigating officers did not bother to probe street crime. He referred to the well-known Supreme Court case about Karachi’s law and order situation in which the top court had directed law enforcement agencies to take action against street criminals and gangsters.

He requested the court to direct law enforcement agencies to take action against muggers and protect citizens. He also asked the court to direct all DIGs to submit the record of street crime incidents that had taken place in their respective jurisdictions. The federal law officer told the court that mobile phone companies should be made respondents in the petition because mobile phones were used in many of the crimes.

The court directed the Sindh police chief, home secretary, all DIGs of Karachi’s districts and others to file their respective comments on the petition by February 22.

Muggings are common in Karachi, where dozens of citizens are deprived of cash and valuables, including mobile phones and jewellery, at gunpoint. Putting up resistance often results in death.

Uzair’s JIT report

The SHC granted an application for the urgent hearing of a petition filed by a Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader who sought making public the joint investigation team’s (JIT) reports compiled after probing Lyari-based gangster Uzair Baloch, former Fishermen Cooperative Society chairman Dr Nisar Morai and the Baldia factory arson case. The court fixed January 27 as the next date of hearing.

Syed Ali Haider Zaidi claimed that the JIT reports had made startling disclosures about the involvement of politicians in crimes such as murder and extortion. He said the relevant authorities were approached to obtain copies of the reports and to make them public but to no avail.

Zaidi said Uzair, tried by a military court under charges of espionage for Iranian intelligence agencies, had confessed to his affiliation with the Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) central leadership, including its women wing leader Faryal Talpur.

He said the gangster had admitted to paying Faryal the extortion money collected from different departments, adding that the man had also confessed to killing several people on the PPP leadership’s directives and to facilitating them in owning private properties after threatening their owners to vacate them.

Invoking the constitution’s Article 19-A (“Right to information”), Zaidi asserted that the provincial and federal governments’ failure to publish the JIT reports was a violation of the citizens’ fundamental rights. He said the content of the JIT reports was of public importance because it related to crimes that had wide-reaching implications on the people at large.

To strengthen his party’s case, he said print and electronic media, through various sources, had reported on the JITs obtaining evidence that suggested the involvement of various politicians in criminal activities. “It is imperative that such people are held accountable for their actions.”

EXTRACT

[The petitioner] asked the court to direct all DIGs to submit the record of street crime incidents that had taken place in their respective jurisdictions.