Journalists being told off at police pickets despite permission to commute

Incidents of misbehaving and manhandling of Karachiites, including journalists who are allowed to commute to perform their professional responsibilities, are continuing at police pickets established in various parts of the city to enforce the ongoing lockdown.

II Chundrigar Road is an artery frequently used by journalists, as the offices of several media organisations are located along it. Besides common citizens, journalists who are on their way to office or are going back to their homes from office are at times not allowed to proceed towards their destinations despite the clear directives of the Sindh government and the inspector general of police of the province not to stop those exempted from the restrictions. “For the last few days, police personnel at the police picket established on II Chundrigar Road near the Shaheen Complex have been stopping journalists from going to their workplace or to their homes,” says a senior journalist. “Despite showing our office cards, they [cops] tell us that these are the orders of the SHO not to allow anyone, even those who are exempted from the ban or restrictions, to go through the picket. The policemen often tell us and other journalists to use other routes, instead.”

Various journalist organisations have strongly condemned the imposition of a ban on motorcycle pillion-riding and road blockades for media persons. They have appealed to the chief minister, the provincial police chief and Karachi’s additional IGP to take notice of the situation, but in vain.