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CM orders crackdown on drug peddling in educational institutes

By Our Correspondent
January 17, 2019

Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has directed the Sindh police to keep strict vigilance and prevent the peddling of narcotics in the province’s educational institutes.

“This is a serious matter and must be handled seriously,” the CM said on Wednesday while presiding over a weekly meeting on law and order at the CM House. “Children are the future of Pakistan and they are our children and we have to bring them up in a safe, secure and healthy atmosphere.”

Adviser on Law Barrister Murtaza Wahab, IGP Dr Kaleem Imam, Principal Secretary to CM Sajid Jamal Abro, Home Secretary Kazi Kabir, CTD Additional IG Dr Waliullah Dal, Karachi Commissioner Iftikhar Shahlwani, CTD DIG Abdullah Shaikh, South DIG Sharjeel Kharal, East DIG Amir Farooqi and West DIG Ameen Yousafzai DIG West attended the meeting.

CM Shah said that whenever he met with parents, they urged him to take strict action against peddling of narcotics in educational institutions. “I am quite concerned about our children,” he said, adding that they were innocent and could be moulded towards good and bad things. “They are our children and we have to keep them safe from such evils.”

South DIG Sharjeel Kharal told the chief minister that he had arrested an important culprit involved in developing a group to penetrate narcotics in educational institutions. Taking the discussion further, IGP Imam said that upon the CM’s instructions the police have already launched a targeted operation against the drug mafia and have busted their different gangs.

Shah directed the education secretary to develop coordination between private administrations of educational institutions and the police and also involve parents, if necessary, to develop a mechanism to stop narcotics peddling into educational institutions.

Giving progress of last week’s meeting’s decisions, the DIG told the CM that he had held a few meetings with DHA authorities for installation of more CCTV cameras and fixing out-of-order ones. The street lights in DHA and Clifton areas were being improved and upgraded, he said.

The CM was also told that culprits of November’s Chinese consulate attack have successfully been arrested. At this, the chief minister directed the home secretary to issue instructions to all the security agencies to get verification of their guards. “I want security audit of all the guards employed by security agencies,” he said and added that apart from verification of their personnel, inspection of their weapons must also be done. “I have noticed that most of the private security guards are untrained which is dangerous.”

CTD Additional IG Dr Waliullah Dal and CTD DIG Abdullah Shaikh briefed the chief minister about busting a gang involved in making fake arms licenses even of banned bores. IGP Imam said that on the pointation of the arrested culprits [involved in making fake licenses] their facilitators in the police department and DC offices have also been taken into custody.

East DIG Amir Farooqui and West DIG West Amin Yousafzai briefed the chief minister about the steps taken by them to curb street crime stating that they have launched a crackdown against street criminals involved in mobile and bike snatching. They added that the rate of street crimes has come down compared to 2018.

The police chief said that he has created a special force of 10 to 20 well-trained policemen being stationed at SSP offices so that they could be called in case of any eventuality. The first batch of the force has been posted at South Zone in the first phase and in the second phase this deployment would be made in other zones.

This initiative has been taken after the attack on the Chinese consulate when the police force was called from different police stations. He further said that he was preparing a mechanism to start recruitment round the year. “Over 10,000 policemen retire from their service every year, therefore, recruitment process as approved by the chief minister was being started,” he said.

The chief minister said that the police have to make its training centres more professional for the training of new recruits and in-service trainings. Speaking about two important events coming up – PSL and multinational Naval AMAN exercise, the CM said police have to provide them security, therefore, necessary meetings with the concerned quarters should be held.

It may be noted that the chief minister has started reviewing law and order situation across Sindh every week. Wednesday’s meeting was the third review meeting held so far.