KARACHI, Sept 13: The Sindh government has decided that five police stations in Karachi, one each in the five districts of Karachi division, will be under the joint control of Rangers and police to deal with four types of heinous crimes, said the chief law officer of the province on Friday.

The suspects arrested on charges of “terrorism, targeted killing, kidnapping for ransom and bhatta (extortion)” during the ongoing targeted operation would be kept and interrogated at the five designated police stations, said Advocate General for Sindh Barrister Khalid Javed Khan.

Speaking to Dawn, the AG said the investigation officer of the case would be a police official who would submit challans (charge-sheets) to the court concerned.

The temporary arrangement had been made till the federal government made necessary amendments to the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1997 and other federal laws under which cases of heinous crimes would be automatically handed over to joint investigation teams (JITs).

Mr Khan believed it would not create any legal or other complications but added that under the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), the FIR should be registered at the place of occurrence of the crime.

He said that a government-formed committee with him, minister for parliamentary affairs and others as members had submitted proposed amendments to the federal laws.

“We have forwarded proposals for amendment to the CrPC and the ATA though we have some reservations over preventive and detective areas of the law,” said the AG without elaborating further.

“So, it would take time as the federal government would have to study the proposals before giving a go-ahead but let me assure you that the proposed amendments are not draconian,” said Mr Khan, hoping the amendments would help improve the existing security situation.

Sindh minister for parliamentary affairs Dr Sikandar Mandhro said the proposed amendments mainly pertained to more powers for Rangers.

He said that at a recent meeting held in Islamabad which was attended by him, the Sindh advocate general and representatives of the federal government, the Rangers representative proposed that they should be given powers to detain suspects for some days.

But the participants contended that under the existing laws the suspect had to be produced in court within 24 hours of his arrest, he said.

The minister said the Rangers official also suggested the force be ‘exempted’ from appearing before the courts concerned but majority of the participants disagreed to the proposal.

Thus, it was decided the Rangers would conduct operations, search and detain suspects but the FIR would be registered by police and a police official would be the investigation officer of the case while the Rangers official might join the investigation as member of proposed JITs, he said.

CCTV cameras

Days after the Sindh government assigned the Karachi police operational control of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation-owned CCTV cameras, the key law-enforcement agency’s role has increased in the city’s video surveillance as it has got control of more such cameras, it emerged on Friday.

Thus all existing CCTV cameras, totalling 1057, including 168 installed at the most sensitive locations, have been given under the operational control of the police. Their maintenance cost would, however, be borne by the respective agencies.

Of the total cameras, 232 belong to the KMC, 785 to the police department itself and 40 cameras belong to the Sindh IT department.

The control of the hundreds of CCTV cameras, which are under installation, would also be given to the police for law and order purpose as the “dual command and control system” would not yield desired results from such huge investment in the technology. The purported non-functional cameras would be made functional by Sept 15.

These decisions were taken at a recent meeting chaired by the Sindh Chief Secretary Mohammed Ejaz Chaudhry at the Sindh Secretariat.

The meeting was informed that the KMC had installed 232 cameras at 55 sites at a cost of Rs120 million from its own resources in phase-I. It was stated that the selection of sites was based “primarily with the objective to protect the infrastructure and KMC property”, showed the minutes of meeting reviewed by Dawn on Friday.

The KMC had initiated phase-II, under which 910 cameras at 152 sites would be installed under its own command and control as in phase-I. However, it was pointed out at the meeting that the cameras were yet to be installed as only laying of a cable network had been completed.

A representative of the company concerned assured the meeting that it would complete phase-II in all respects by the end of November. However, it was stated that the phase-I cameras were functional wherever they were installed.

It was pointed out at the meeting that the KMC in the past used to allow the Rangers and police to monitor important events.

The Karachi commissioner said that the “installation of cameras would not help in the control of crimes until and unless it was associated with a quick response force”.

He said he believed that “owing to dual command and control system, it was difficult to receive dividends from such huge investment”.

It was also revealed that the police department had also planned installation of 900 cameras at 157 strategic sites at an estimated cost of Rs500 million, of which 785 cameras had already been installed.

It was stated that the police department had conceived another project and selected 400 sites in the provincial capital where 2,000 cameras would be installed. The police also planned to install 100 cameras at 200 ‘crime affected’ sites in the rest of Sindh.

Apart from the police and the KMC, the information technology department of Sindh has also installed 40 cameras at main intersections to manage traffic, at a cost of Rs100 million. These cameras had been given under the control of the traffic police for traffic management. However, the representative of the police department told the meeting that “some of the cameras” were non-functional owing to “improper maintenance” by both the IT department and the traffic police.

The meeting decided that the inspector general of the Sindh police and the Karachi administrator would ensure that all installed cameras would be made functional before Sept 16. In case they faced hurdles from any department, they would take up the issue with the chief secretary.

“Command and control of all the CCTV cameras would immediately be handed over to the police but its maintenance and repair cost would continue to be borne by those agencies which had installed those cameras,” the meeting was told.

It was stated that the monthly operational cost of the Sindh police’s CCTV cameras was around Rs6.6 million. These cameras’ data storage capacity was 30 days and since Nov 30, 2012, the police had been getting help from them in dealing with heinous crimes etc.

The monthly operational cost of the traffic police’s cameras was about Rs1.2 million and these cameras, which monitor traffic accidents etc, had a 14-day data storage capacity.