Crackdown against unvaccinated citizens in Karachi starts

KARACHI: The Karachi Police have launched a crackdown against unvaccinated people and arrested over dozens of people for failing to possess vaccination cards during random checking.

In one of such incidents, the Sohrab Goth police on Friday arrested two persons who failed to provide vaccination card. Police said that they were patrolling in the area and were busy checking people with or without vaccination cards as instructed by the home department. During the process, they stopped two persons, identified as Habibur Rehman and Muhammad Khalid, who revealed that they have not even been administered a single dose of Covid-19 vaccination. The police arrested both of them under Section of Disease Act 2014 and registered an FIR.

The crackdown was launched after the Inspector-General Sindh Police Mushtaq Mahar directed field police officials in the province to check possession of coronavirus vaccination card with the general public.

The Sindh Police chief issued the directives to immediately launch the campaign in their respective jurisdictions following reservations expressed by the Sindh chief secretary over delay in launching of such checking drives in the province.

The field police officials have been asked to send reports containing the lawful action taken against the persons who didn’t possess the coronavirus vaccination cards to the central police office daily by 9pm via either E-mail, fax, or WhatsApp. The monitoring reports will be forwarded to the Sindh government.

Earlier, the home department, Sindh, had issued directives to the Sindh inspector general of police, the Sindh Rangers director general, all commissioners and deputy commissioners of the province, additional IGP, and all the deputy IGPs and senior superintendents of police of the province. Showing anger over the arrests of unvaccinated people, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan alleged the provincial government has started minting money from Karachiites under the pretext of vaccination certificates.

MQM-P’s Deputy Convener Nasreem Jalil claimed, “Police have now been harassing people by blocking roads in certain areas and demanding them to show vaccination certificates,” adding, “This is a violation of basic human rights and a violation of the Constitution. The Sindh government should have vaccinated the people from door to door and not made arrests in a crude manner.”

The leader demanded the provincial police chief to take back the illegal and inhumane order. She also demanded the CJP, CJ of SHC, prime minister and federal interior minister to stop the excesses of Sindh Police with Karachi’s citizens, and stop the Sindh government from violating the Constitution.