KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Friday directed the inspector general of police (IGP) to ensure proper deployment of police on the blocked roads around National Stadium Karachi to curb street crimes and also summoned the Karachi police chief on March 2.

A two-judge bench headed by Justice Mohammad Ali Mazhar also asked the focal person of the Sindh home department and SP-traffic (East) to appear in court on the next hearing along with replies on an application seeking contempt proceedings against them for allegedly violating court orders by blocking roads near NSK.

Petitioner Aziz Fatima has moved a contempt application submitting that despite giving a clear undertaking by SP-traffic Farah Umbreen and home department’s focal person Ali Asghar Mehar that the two main roads near NSK would not be blocked during the ongoing matches of Pakistan Super League, the alleged contemnors have again blocked the roads and committed contempt of court.

The alleged contemnors turned up stating that they had not violated the court order. The bench directed them to ensure their presence on the next hearing as well along with replies and their supporting affidavits.

During the hearing, Advocate Hanif Bandhani filed an application to join the proceedings.

SHC issues notices on petition against Faisal Vawda’s Senate nomination

He submitted that his grandson, Usama Saeed, who was shot and wounded in a mugging attempt, died due to excessive bleeding since he could not be brought to a hospital in time due to blocked rods.

The bench observed that in the interest of justice the application was taken on record and a copy had been supplied to the assistant advocate general (AAG), DSP (Legal) and IG office.

The police submitted that the offence was committed within the remit of the Sharifabad police station and the IG office had already called the investigating officer and the area SHO.

The bench asked the SHO to inform it in writing whether he had deployed proper police force in his area to avoid any untoward incidents and to also submit a progress report as to what action they were taking to arrest the killers of Usama.

It ordered the SHOs of Liaquatabad and Aziz Bhatti police stations to ensure proper safety arrangements within their jurisdiction and also directed the IGP to convey clear directions to the SHOs in whose areas traffic was blocked or diverted to ensure police deployment to avoid any untoward incident of mobile snatching or robberies on roads.

AAG Sheheryar Mehar submitted that the SSP-Security was the relevant person for such arrangements, whereas the SP-traffic submitted that DIG-operations was responsible for the deployment of containers on roads.

The bench observed that since the officials were shifting responsibility to each other, therefore it was necessary that Karachi police chief Ghulam Nabi Memon should appear in person along with SSP-Security.

It also issued notices to the additional secretary, home department, and SSP-investigation (Central) for March 2.

Initially, the petitioner had approached the SHC submitting that the respondents had closed all roads around NSK from Jan 26 to Jan 31 during international cricket matches by sabotaging fundamental rights of citizens enshrined in the Constitution and creating grave hardships for the people.

The petitioner also expressed the apprehension that the respondents would also continue this practice during the upcoming PSL matches.

On Feb 17, the bench had disposed of the petition after the officials gave a clear statement that neither a road from the Karachi central prison to Nipa traffic intersection and Sir Shah Suleman Road heading towards Dalmia were currently blocked nor would they be blocked during the PSL, but some security arrangements would be made for a limited period at the time of arrival and departure of teams.

Notice issued on plea against Vawda

The same bench on Friday issued notices to Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for March 1 on a petition challenging the candidature of federal minister Faisal Vawda to contest the upcoming Senate election.

Qadir Khan Mandokhel filed the petition against an order of the election tribunal that dismissed his appeal against the Feb 18 order of the returning officer (RO) to accept nomination papers of the federal minister for March 3 Senate election.

The petitioner contended that the nomination form of respondent should not have been entertained since he was still a sitting MNA and a federal minister while an earlier complaint against Mr Vawda was still pending before the ECP and a petition before the Islamabad High Court for not disclosing his US nationality in the nomination papers filed during the general elections in 2018.

The tribunal had ruled that the entire case of the appellant was in view of allegations pertaining to 2018 general election while the tribunal was constituted at a pre-electoral stage to only consider the objections against the decisions of RO for the March 3 Senate election.

Published in Dawn, February 27th, 2021