Karachi’s police stations to have biometric attendance system in five months, SHC told

A police law officer has informed the Sindh High Court (SHC) that a biometric system for recording attendance will be installed at all the police stations of Karachi within five months.

The officer gave this assurance to the SHC on Friday while the court was hearing a petition seeking directions for the provincial authorities regarding the installation of biometric attendance system at every police station of Sindh, and computerisation of FIRs, diaries, entries and all the movement of the police force as per the law.

The high court was informed that the biometric system had been put in place at nine police training colleges of the province and some other units and offices, including the Central Police Office, Madadgar 15 call centre, command and control centre at the Civic Centre, special security unit and others.

The officer informed the SHC that the Sindh police were purchasing 100 biometric devices and in the first phase, the biometric system would be installed at the Rapid Response Force (RRF) and Sindh Reserve Police (SRP) ranges, other police lines and the police stations of Karachi within five months.

He submitted that the offices and police stations of the rest of Sindh would be connected with the centralised biometric attendance system in the second phase after the successful installation of 100 devices in the first phase.

The officer sought time to implement the court directives. The SHC directed the police to file a progress report with regard to the installation of biometric verification system in the police stations of the province.

IGP on street crime

Addressing a workshop on community policing at a local hotel, Sindh Inspector General of Police Dr Syed Kaleem Imam on Friday called for addressing the issues of unemployment and illiteracy as they continued producing criminals.

Admitting an extraordinary surge in street crime during the last few months in Karachi, the police chief said even many of his family members, including brother, sister, nephews and mother-in-law, were mugged at gunpoint in the city.

He said despite such incidents that had affected his family, he was still smiling in front of the gathering. “There is hardly any citizen who has remained safe at the hands of street criminals. Unemployment and illiteracy are the two major factors behind the surge in street crime and it cannot be controlled without the safe city project.”

"Think about for a while about how my married life would be like after my mother-in-law was forced to give up her jewellery,” the police chief was reported as saying.

He said the police and Rangers might have brought back relative peace to Karachi, the city that was once notorious for target killings, but it had seen an unprecedented surge in street crime during the last few months.

Dr Imam said the police had largely overcome serious crimes in the city, and now they were trying to eliminate street crime and the safe city project could be very helpful for it. He informed the participants of the workshop about the initiatives being taken by the police to curb the menace of street crime.

During the last few months, hundreds of people in the city have been deprived of their valuables, and about a dozen killed and hundreds of others wounded during mugging incidents. The people who lost their lives included a medical student as well as personnel of the army and Rangers.

PTI voices concerns

Expressing his concerns over delay in the arrest of the killers of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader Asif Haroon, Sindh Assembly opposition leader Firdous Shamim Naqvi on Friday said the rise in targeted killings and street crimes in the city showed that the provincial government had failed to protect residents.

Addressing a press conference at the Karachi Press Club, Naqvi, who is PTI’s central leader, said despite the passage of a week, the law enforcement agencies had failed to arrest the culprits involved in Haroon’s slaying.

Haroon was shot dead by armed motorcyclists outside a mosque in FB Area on Saturday evening, whose family said that that the victim had been receiving threats for the last few days.

“Haroon was the party’s old guard and was active in resolving issues in the neighborhood. We are sad about his demise,” said Naqvi, who was accompanied by the PTI

MNAs, Aslam Khan, Akram Cheema, Ataullah Advocate, PTI MPA Umar Ammari and Haroon’s family members.

He said that it was unfortunate that the government had failed to devise a proper strategy to counter street crime activities in the city. “If the safe city project exists in Karachi, it should be enforced immediately,” he said.

Citing the statistic released by the Citizens-Police Liaison Committee (CPLC) that showed some 18 people were killed in target killings and other violence incidents in the fresh wave of crime in the city, Naqvi said Central and East were the worst affected districts.

“Rise in street crimes and targeted killings had spread a sense of fear among Karachiites and it is because of the Sindh government and Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah,” he said, adding that because of changing city’s police chief on a daily basis, the police department could not work properly.

“We have formulated some suggestions for the police reforms in the province and are sending it to the provincial police chief,” he said.