KARACHI - Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has directed the police to launch a vigorous targeted operation against street criminals and their facilitators.
“This must be decisive and result-oriented,” he said while presiding over a meeting on law and order, especially street crime, here on Friday morning. The meeting was attended by Chief Secretary Rizwan Memon, Sindh Police Inspector General AD Khowaja, Karachi Additional IG Mushtaq Maher, CTD Additional IG Sanaullah Abbasi, Principal Secretary to CM Naveed Kamran Baloch, Home Secretary Shakeel Mangnijo, Karachi Commissioner Aijaz Ali Khan, CPLC chief Zubair, DIG (Traffic) Asif Aijaz Shaikh and others.
Murad said in his opening remarks that he was not happy with statistics on street crime that were presented to the cabinet meeting on Thursday. “This is why I have convened a follow up meeting to review the rate of street crime and devise a pragmatic strategy to crush street criminals,” he said. Giving 15-day comparative figures of street crime collected by the CPLC, Additional IG Mushtaq Maher said that 19 vehicles were snatched in 2015, while these figures dropped to seven in 2016. In 2017, these figures again rose to 18, he said.
Talking about vehicle theft, he said that 92 vehicles were stolen in 2015, 73 in 2016 and 52 in 2017. He said that 152 two-wheelers were snatched in 2015, 114 in 2016 and 65 in 2017. Referring to the two-wheeler theft, he said that 592 vehicles were stolen in 2015, 762 in 2016 and 734 in 2017. Maher said that 1,187 mobile-snatching incidents took place in 2015, 791 in 2016 and 530 in 2017.
On this, the chief minister said that street crime figures had come down, but street crime had persisted in the city. He said that people’s complaints in this regard were genuine. He said that 13 police stations were the most affected in terms of mobile snatching, four and two-wheeler theft and snatching. He said that 1,548 street criminals were arrested in 2016; 14 of them were convicted and three acquitted. Presently, he said, 1,082 street criminals were in jails and 449 on bail.
IG Khowaja said there was a link between street crime and drug addiction. He said that most criminals belonged to slums. He said the sanctioned strength of Karachi police was 39,589, while the force had just 27,389 personnel. This shows that police are short of 12,200 personnel, he said.
In response, the chief minister allowed the provincial police chief to fill the vacant posts in the police department on merit. It was pointed out that the population of New Delhi was 16 million and the city had a police force of 84,536 personnel; one policeman for 198 people. New York has a population of 8.5 million and a police force of 49,526 personnel; one policeman for 172 people. Lahore has a population of 10.35 million and a police force of 27,146 personnel; one policeman for 381 people. Karachi has a population of 22 million and police force of 27,389 personnel; one policeman for 803 people.
The chief minister said there were some administrative issues in the city that must be addressed effectively. He directed the provincial police chief to expedite installation of CCTVs in the city and order extensive patrol in the crime-hit areas. He said that complainants must be urged through the CPLC to pursue their cases.
The chief minister ordered the provincial police chief to develop a close coordination among various wings of the police and launch a vigorous targeted operation against street criminals. The operation must be properly worked out and focused. In the operation, he said, the drug and land grabber mafia must be crushed.
MURAD MEETS DAR, TAKES
UP SALES TAX ISSUE
Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah said during a meeting with Federal Minister for Finance Ishaq Dar at Chief Minister’s House on Friday that at-source sales tax deduction from provincial government’s account by the FBR was unjustified.
He said that last year the FBR had directly withdrawn Rs4 billion from Sindh government’s account against the assumed payment of sales tax. “As a matter of fact these figures must be reconciled before deducting amount from Sindh government’s account,” he said. He said that this year again the FBR had deducted Rs4 million from Sindh government’s account.
Murad said the FBR had asked the State Bank of Pakistan to deduct the amount and they withdrew the amount from Sindh government’s account No.1 without taking the provincial government into confidence.
On this, Dar assured the chief minister that he would direct the FBR to have a meeting with the provincial finance secretary to reconcile the amount. He said the FBR would return the amount if it had charged some extra amount from the provincial government. It was also agreed that a quarterly meeting would be held between the FBR and the provincial government of Sindh to reconcile the sales tax figures. It may be noted that the Excise and Taxation Department collects sales tax on registration of vehicles.