69 gutka, mawa factories still running in city under police patronage

Although the Sindh High Court (SHC) had last week ordered cases to be registered against those selling gutka under Section 337-A (shajjah, intentionally causing hurt) of the Pakistan Penal Code, and Additional IG Karachi Ghulam Nabi Memon had warned of a zero tolerance policy against those selling gutka, mawa and mainpuri, internal reporters of the Sindh police have disclosed that the gutka/mawa production factories are operating under police patronage in Karachi.

The Sindh police’s Special Branch has prepared a list of the gutka/mawa production factories which are still running in Karachi under the patronage of the city police. “Despite the SHC orders to register against them as well as for conducting police crackdowns, the business continued, forcing the IGP Sahib to give the task to the Special Branch of compiling a list of the factories,” a senior police officer privy to the matter told The News on Monday.

“Then the list was placed in front of the relevant police officials, including the district SSPs by IGP Sahib, who ordered them to take actions against them.” Though the list was prepared three days ago, so far no major action has been taken by the Karachi police against these factories, their operatives and the policemen involved.

According to the list, 69 factories are still operating in the city. The list has proper details of the operatives, their residential addresses, affiliations, the locations of the factories or the preparation place, the current position and names of the policemen or the police station involved.

According to the list, District West is on the top with 32 factories operating in different police stations’ limits, including Surjani Town, Orangi Town, Madina Colony, Baldia Town, Saeedabad, SITE-A Section, Pak Colony, Pirabad and Mominabad.

District City has 10 factories in different police stations’ remits, including Jackson, Mauripur, Mochko, Kalakot, Baghdadi and Kalri. District East has seven factories in Shah Faisal Colony, al-Falah, PIB, Brigade, Solider Bazaar and Ferozabad police stations, and seven such factories are running in District Korangi’s police stations, including Landhi, Korangi Industrial Area, Korangi and Zaman Town.

Nine factories are in District Malir’s different police stations’ limits, including Ibrahim Hyderi, Malir City, Shah Latif Town, Sukkan, Saudabad and Khokhrapar, while factories are running in four police stations’ remits of District South, including Chakiwara, Aram Bagh, Defence and Boat Basin.

The Sindh High Court (SHC) had last week ordered cases to be registered against those selling gutka under Section 337-A (shajjah, intentionally causing hurt) of the Pakistan Penal Code. During the hearing of a petition by a two-member SHC bench headed by Justice Salahuddin Panhwar against the use of gutka and mainpuri, The petitioner’s advocate, Muzammil Mumtaz, had argued against the police registering cases for the sale of harmful substances under Section 336 of the PPC, which is a bailable offence.

He said this practice was the reason why those who manufactured and sold gutka got out of jail so quickly and resumed their activities with impunity. Additional IG Karachi Ghulam Nabi Memon had also warned a few days back of a zero tolerance policy against those selling gutka, mawa and mainpuri, who could face imprisonment for up to 10 years under Section 337-J.