CM Murad Ali Shah tells police not to allow more than two passengers in rickshaws

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has directed the police officials in the city to ensure that any rickshaw operating in Karachi during the lockdown regime in place should not carry more than two passengers.

People violating this order should be made to abort their journey while such rickshaws should also be impounded, the CM said.

He issued these directives while chairing the meeting of the task force on coronavirus health emergency at the CM House on Saturday evening.

He asked the police and administration officials about the issues being faced by them in enforcing the lockdown orders, to which the South Zone DIG informed him that the police had an easy ride in persuading the people of the Defence area of the city to observe the lockdown regime.

He said the South Zone police had been facing difficulties in convincing the people to stay at home in the Old City areas, Lyari, and Saddar. “We have been facing difficulties to a certain extent but as the time passes on, people have come to realise the situation as they have now started to obey the lockdown orders by staying at home,” he remarked.

The CM also asked the police officers whether specific directives had been passed on to the police personnel deputed at the checkpoints in the city about the procedure they needed to adopt to deal with the public.

The West SSP informed the meeting that the people involved in transportation of food items, sale and purchase of medicines, and workers of such factories were allowed to cross the police checkpoints. He said people who thronged any particular street in the city were also asked to go back to their homes.

The Karachi commissioner said the goods’ transport was allowed to operate in the city but people should be stopped from roaming around the streets aimlessly. He said that learned police personnel were deployed at the checkpoints.

South SSP Sheraz Waheed said the police personnel deployed at the checkpoints had been informed about the exceptional cases that should be exempted from the lockdown orders.

He said the lockdown orders were not being implemented on the staffers of K-Electric and banks.

The Korangi deputy commissioner said since a large number people had been gathering at places where rations were distributed, the government had started to inform them that they should not form crowds to get food items because the government would supply rations to the needy people at their doorstep. The CM said all of the administration and police officials had been working hard and carrying out the difficult task of implementing the lockdown. He said due cautions had to be taken in order to save oneself from the viral disease.

People coming out of their residential streets without any valid reason should be stopped, the CM ordered. He said any residential street should not be populated by more than two persons at a time and extra people seen on the streets should be sent to their houses.

He said people should be cautioned against the practise of roaming around on streets aimlessly. He, however, said the dignity of people should not be harmed while implementing the lockdown orders.

The CM also directed the police not to ask the general public to wear surgical masks. Shoppers outside a grocery market should maintain some distance among them, he said, adding that those people should, however, wear masks outside who were suffering from cough and flu and the best practice for such persons was that they should stay at home.

The additional IG Karachi said some 1,133 persons had been arrested in the city against 391 FIRs registered by the police for violating the lockdown regime of the Sindh government. He said there was complete closure of shops of non-essential items in the city.

He said people were also not allowed to take part in the congregational prayers. He informed the CM that the Sindh police officials were saluting the doctors going out to perform their duties as this trend was being followed all over the country. He said the process of the rations distribution in the city had to be organised as people were flocking to such places without maintaining social distancing where they found food items being distributed.

The Sindh CM asked all the SSPs in the city to make the lockdown measures more stringent in Karachi as doing so would generate thee desired results.