Minister contacts LEAs over journalists’ complaints during lockdown

Sindh Minister for Information and Local Government Nasir Hussain Shah on Thursday contacted top Rangers and police officers and apprised them of the reservations expressed by the journalists as well as other people engaged in delivering essential services.

The complaints are largely about the behavior of the law enforcement personnel deployed at various places in Karachi during the coronavirus lockdown. The information minister told the Rangers and police officers that they should tell all those security personnel deployed on the roads in Karachi to behave in a good manner with journalists and those engaged in delivering essential services.

The services of the journalists and staffers of other essential services were as important as the services being rendered by the security personnel during the difficult time, he said.

Nasir Hussain Shah said the concerns of the journalists and other essential services' staffers should be addressed immediately. The relevant officers of the Rangers and police told the provincial minister that the security personnel on the roads had been instructed not to misbehave with journalists as well as other people who had been permitted by the government to do their jobs.

The minister said journalists should also cooperate with the security personnel, adding that they should carry their office cards as well as the CNIC with them while performing their jobs. Shah said Pakistan Peoples Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari had also directed him to immediately address the concerns of the journalists.

On Tuesday, Sindh IGP Mushtaq Ahmed Mahar had requested his subordinates to sympathise with the people because “we are passing through an extraordinary situation”. In a message, he had said that the police in the coming weeks and months had to play an important role given the current situation. He advised that while enforcing the law in the prevalent circumstances, the police should not consider those defying the government’s lockdown orders as usual law-breakers.