PTI leaders raise issue of rising street crime in Karachi with DG Rangers, city police chief

A group of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Karachi leaders on Monday separately met Pakistan Rangers Sindh Director General (DG) Maj Gen Iftikhar Husain Chaudhry and the newly appointed Karachi police chief Imran Yaqub Minhas to raise the PTI’s concerns over the rise in street crime, drug trafficking and child abuse in the city.

The PTI delegation was led by the party’s Karachi chief and MPA Khurrum Sher Zaman. It comprised Rabia Azfar, Shehzad Qureshi amd Faraz Lakhani. A press release issued by the Insaf House said the PTI leaders in the meetings called for a tough strategy to maintain law and order in the city.

They also presented their suggestions for curbing street crime and other illegal activities in the city. Talking to the media after the meetings, Zaman said it was the constitutional responsibility of the police to ensure safety of the people.

“The law and order situation in Karachi is chaotic. The Rangers have restored the colours of Karachi. The Sindh government should give more powers to the Rangers so that the situation can be controlled in a better way,” he said.

He added that the PTI delegation told the Karachi police chief that the party was willing to cooperate if he needed any legislation for dealing with crimes in the city. Zaman alleged that DIGs and SSPs were being recruited on political grounds. “We have requested that such recruitment be made on merit. We do not want police personnel to be recruited on the basis of friendship.” Showing concerns over the worst law and order situation in northern Sindh, Zaman said kidnappers ruled the unpaved areas of the province where robbers had anti-aircraft guns as well.

He urged the prime minister to ask the army’s help for an operation against the anti-peace elements in Sindh. The PTI MPA also talked about child beggary in Karachi, saying that the issue had become severe. “We have enacted legislation; begging of children on the streets is unbearable,” he said. “Drug dealers are seducing students and drugs are destroying the youth,” he added.

Kashmore killings

PTI Central Vice-President and opposition leader in the Sindh Assembly Haleem Adil Sheikh on Monday lamented the killings of 10 people in Kashmore during the Eid holidays.

“On Eid’s third day, ten villagers were killed in Kashmore because their buffalos were stolen and police failed to recover them. “When the villagers went to find their stolen buffalos, they were killed by bandits,” he said.

Addressing a press conference in the Sindh Assembly, Sheikh said kidnappings for ransom were rising in the rural Sindh. “Today bandits are so powerful that they share their pictures on social media. They have no fear because they give a share of the booty to officers and ministers,” he alleged. “These shares even go to the Chief Minister’s House.”

He remarked that no criminal feared the Sindh police as they had been politicised. The inspector general of police (IGP) should have set up a camp office in the Katcha area after the killing of ten people in Kashmore but he even did not go to his own office, Sheikh said. He stated that after former IGP Kaleem Imam, the PPP was running the entire Sindh police department.