Court orders release of man arrested for littering

A judicial magistrate on Friday ordered the release of a man arrested a day earlier by the police for violating the ban on throwing trash in the open.

The police had arrested Abdul Jabbar on Thursday for allegedly disobeying the ban imposed by the provincial government under the Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) on throwing trash on roads and public places.

The man was booked under the Section 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) of the Pakistan Penal Code on behalf of the state at the Sukkan police station.

At the outset of the hearing, the investigation officer (IO) produced the suspect before the court of a Malir judicial magistrate and requested for his 14-day physical remand in police custody.

The IO contended that the suspect was throwing waste of animals from a cattle farm in the open when he was taken into custody. He asked the magistrate to send the arrested man on physical remand as he needed to be interrogated.

The magistrate, however, turned down the police’s request and ordered the release of the suspect. Jabbar was the first person to be arrested for violating the ban on littering recently imposed by the Sindh government in connection with its ongoing cleanliness drive in the city.

Two held for littering

Meanwhile, two citizens were arrested on Friday for throwing garbage on a street and into a drain on the second day of the 90-day ban imposed on littering in Karachi.

The Tipu Sultan police nabbed a citizen when he was throwing garbage on the service road along Sharea Faisal. The arrested citizen was identified as Sohail, who worked at a shop and was dumping trash of the shop on the service road. An FIR No 295/19 was registered against him on behalf of the state.

The other arrest over littering was made in District Central. According to the police, a man, Musharraf, was arrested when he was found throwing garbage into a drain in North Nazimabad within the limits of the Shahrah-e-Noor Jahan police station. The police registered an FIR No 256/19 against him.

Since the ban on littering was notified late on Wednesday night, around half-a-dozen citizens have so far been arrested by the police for throwing garbage on the streets, roads and open places.

On Wednesday night, the Sindh government issued a notification about imposition of the Section 144 of the CrPC in Karachi for a period of 90 days.

The government has banned open littering on the streets, littering outside the main doors of houses, littering through windows of vehicles on the road, open littering on beaches, throwing debris of damaged structures of under construction buildings on the roads and spitting paan in the open.