KARACHI: A large number of Muttahida Qaummi Movement Pakistan (MQM-P) workers took out a rally from M.A. Jinnah Road to the Sindh police headquarters, located on I.I. Chundrigar Road, against growing street crimes in the city.

Riding motorcycles, cars and other vehicles ahead of many others on foot, party workers passed through M.A. Jinnah Road raising slogans against the Sindh government and police before assembling outside the Central Police Office (CPO), where they handed over a memorandum to senior police officers.

Speaking to the participants, MQM-P leaders accused police of having left the city and its citizens at the mercy of criminals. Instead of discharging their duty to control crime, they were only providing security to Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) ministers, lawmakers and other leaders, they said.

They described the Sindh inspector general as “a representative of the chief minister”, and said the top officials of the law-enforcement agency should share details of their performance pertaining to the last three months and prove its effectiveness. They warned that if they failed to control street crimes in the city, the party would be left with no other option but to launch a vigorous protest movement.

Leaders tell police to stop serving only as private guards of PPP leaders

“The people are robbed in broad daylight,” said Kanwar Naveed Jamil, the MQM-P parliamentary party leader in the Sindh Assembly, while speaking to the rally participants. “It doesn’t end here. The failure of the police and Sindh government has now encouraged criminals to the extent that they now kill people upon a slight resistance. There have been reports of even sexual assaults on women during house robberies in the city, he lamented. “This is nothing but utter failure of the Sindh government and police,” he said.

Mr Jamil said the menace of street crime had witnessed an exponential surge but the government stood unmoved. It responded only when the media reported that over a dozen people had been killed within the last few weeks by muggers and robbers, he deplored.

Senior MQM-P leader Khawaja Izhar ul Hasan said that over 13,000 cases of street crime had been reported within the last week. The armed criminals robbed citizens of their cash, mobile phones and vehicles at gunpoint. The number of unreported cases, he said, could be much higher because people usually did not opt for lodging their complaints as they did not trust police.

“TV journalist Athar Mateen was shot dead about a week back but we haven’t heard anything positive from the police and the Sindh government with regard to providing justice to his family,” he said.

“The police department is being used as a “private security company” for a particular class of society. The force is used by PPP leaders and the feudal lords for their personal protection. Their families enjoy VIP protocol while Karachiites have been left at the mercy of armed criminals.”

Later in the evening, Federal Minister for Ports and Shipping, Ali Zaidi, who is also Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s Sindh president, visited the MQM-P headquarters in Bahadurabad where he was received by the latter’s convener, Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqi. During the meeting, MQM-P expressed its support to PTI’s Feb 26 ‘Sindh Haqooq March’ from Ghotki to Karachi.

Mr Siddiqui said his party would support any movement that was for the rights of the people of Karachi and the province.

Published in Dawn, February 25th, 2022