Caretaker PM chairs law and order meeting in Karachi

KARACHI: Caretaker Prime Minister Justice (retd) Nasirul Mulk has said that holding of upcoming general elections in a peaceful environment is the foremost priority of his government. The caretaker PM stated this while chairing a meeting here at the Sindh Governor House to review the law and order situation of the province.

The caretaker PM said that federal, provincial governments, and all the relevant institutions would adopt a composite strategy to ensure the upcoming general polls in a peaceful, transparent, and independent manner. The caretaker PM directed the officials concerned to take stern and indiscriminate action against elements attempting to sabotage the law and order situation in the province.

The new Sindh Chief Secretary, Azam Sulaiman, and Inspector General of Sindh Police Amjad Javed Saleemi on the occasion briefed the PM about the current situation of law and order prevailing in the province and also measures being taken to ensure peaceful polls in Sindh. The PM was also briefed about actions being taken by the Sindh Rangers and other law-enforcement agencies under the targeted operation in Karachi to combat the menace of target killings, extortion of money, and kidnapping for ransom.

The PM was briefed that the rate of occurrence of incidents of such heinous crimes in the city had decreased by 85 per cent owing to coordinated efforts and work by the police, Rangers, and other intelligence agencies. As such now there exists no no-go area in the city while people are fully free to perform tasks related to their daily routine life, he said.

The caretaker PM said that LEAs with better coordination among them, full-fledged efforts, and resolve to restore peace had drastically improved the law and order situation of Karachi. The PM expressed his satisfaction on the situation and praised the performance of police, Rangers, and intelligence agencies in this regard.

He paid homage to the services of personnel of LEAs who had laid down their lives for the cause of law and order situation in Karachi. He said that all the relevant agencies should determine a composite course of action for ensuring peaceful general elections in Sindh as for this purpose, the concerned institutions should remain in close contact with each other. He said the federal government would provide utmost support to the Sindh government to ensure peaceful polls in Sindh.

He said the LEAs should remain fully alert in order to ensure peaceful holding of general elections in a peaceful, free, fair, and independent manner. He said that the caretaker provincial government should fully implement the security protocol devised for the purpose of peaceful polls.

In this regard, the federal government would provide utmost assistance to the Sindh government and Election Commission in view of its own mandate, said the caretaker PM. Caretaker Sindh Chief Minister Fazal-ur-Rehman, Corps Commander Karachi Lt General Shahid Baig Mirza, federal interior secretary, and other senior officials attended the meeting.

Meanwhile, the caretaker PM said that the upcoming general elections would prove to be the most important turning point in the political history of the country. While meeting Sindh Governor Mohammad Zubair here at the Governor House, the PM said that all efforts would be made to ensure smooth transfer of power to upcoming elected government in view of aspirations of people and democratic norms.

In this regard, the caretaker government has been taking all the required steps to ensure peaceful polls and to run administrative affairs in an amicable and democratic manner during the interim period of governance.

During the meeting, the two top authorities expressed the resolve to ensure provision of suitable security environment for peaceful and smooth general elections. They said that all the required steps would be taken to ensure fool-proof security during the electioneering activities in the province so to avoid any untoward incident. They were of the view that steps would be taken to maintain peace in Karachi, which was rightly considered as the economic hub of the country.