The Karachi commissioner has directed officials to ensure that all businesses and restaurants in the city are closed down by 8pm on New Year's Eve (today).

In a notification dated Oct 30 and addressed to all the deputy commissioners, the office of the Karachi commissioner said that "owing to security reasons and on the request of the police department [...] please ensure the closure of all restaurants and business places at 8pm on the eve of New Year 2021".

In an earlier notification from the same day, the office of the Karachi commissioner had said all shops and restaurants would close by 5pm on New Year's Eve, however, later the time for closure was extended by three hours.

During a meeting of all deputy commissioners and senior police and government officials yesterday, it was decided that standard operating procedures (SOPs) for curbing the spread of the coronavirus would be "implemented in letter and spirit".

"Police and other agencies shall be deployed at sensitive points to control the mob that might come up to celebrate the event at Seaview," the notification said.

"Ambulances and fire brigades shall be stationed at police camps that will be established at sensitive points by the police to control the law and order situation and to manage the crowd," it added.

The participants of the meeting also decided to declare an emergency at all hospitals and to make all CCTV cameras at Seaview functional to "monitor the activities".

In another notification, Karachi Commissioner Navid Ahmed Shaikh also imposed a complete ban on aerial firing on New Year's Eve.

"The deputy commissioners and assistant commissioners of Karachi division are hereby authorised to take action against violators with the concerned SSPs and get them booked under Section 188 of the Code of Criminal Procedure [...] for violating Section 144 of the CrPc," the notification read.

The Sindh Rangers, in a press release issued today, said all security arrangements for New Year's Eve including increasing snap checking and mobile patrolling in Karachi and interior Sindh had been completed.

There will be a complete ban on aerial firing and any sort of display of weapons, it added.

Meanwhile, the additional inspector general of Karachi also appealed to citizens to refrain from aerial firing, saying it could result in injury or death to any person and was a crime.

Traffic plan

The Traffic Police, in a press release issued yesterday, said that no roads in the city would be closed for traffic on New Year's Eve. However, only one-way traffic would be allowed from McDonald's to Village Restaurant on the Sea View Road.

"All heavy traffic such as water tankers, dumpers, trawlers and trucks will not be allowed to enter the city from 6pm till the flow of traffic goes back to normal. No parking of any sort will be allowed on the following roads: Sea View Road, main Shahrah-e-Faisal, Abdullah Haroon Road, Dr Ziauddin Ahmed Road, Mai Kolachi Road, Korangi Road and M. T. Khan Road among others," it added.

Legal action would be taken against those driving with broken helmets, broken silencers or without silencers and those breaking traffic rules such as overspeeding, it further stated.

Last week, the city police chief had said that people resorting to jubilant/aerial firing on New Year’s Eve would be booked under charges of attempted murder.

“If any person [is] hurt due to the firing, it would be construed that it was not aerial firing but the person was directly involved in injuring the victim,” Karachi police chief Ghulam Nabi Memon had said.

According to police data, one person was killed while several others were hurt in aerial firing on New Year’s Eve 2017 while 19 persons including women suffered bullet wounds in 2018.

Similarly, 19 persons including women and children received bullet injuries in 2019 while in 2020, 14 persons suffered injuries.