KARACHI: With street crimes beginning to affect life at the residential colony inside the campus of the University of Karachi, as, indeed, is the case elsewhere across the city, the internal watch and ward system working under the university administration is trying its best to at least have the vacant posts filled up. As things stand today, according to the campus security officer (CSO), the department is making do with much less than the sanctioned strength.

The university has less than 150 guards to secure the campus spread over 1,200 acres that has a daily influx of around 80,000 visitors, including students, vehicle operators, canteen contractors and the many unknowns.

How lax the current arrangement is can be gauged by the fact that the main campus of the Institute of Business Administration (IBA), located inside the KU campus, has 60 security guards covering a premises spread over 50 acres.

In effect, for every acre, IBA has 1.2 guards, while KU has one guard for every eight acres. The comparison speaks for itself.

Less than 150 personnel guard vast KU campus; varsity gives 500 litres fuel to paramilitary force stationed there since 1989

There are only 45 guards deployed in each of the three shifts — making it a staggering 26.6 acres per guard per shift — when, according to a former campus security adviser, there are 120 points where deployment is needed round the clock to have a functional security network in place.

There are around 40 posts for security guards that have been lying vacant for several years, while the process of outsourcing around 30 posts is lingering for almost a year.

There have been at least one formal and several informal meetings of ‘groups’ of faculty members to seek the attention of the CSO office, and there is a plan in the pipeline to file an official complaint in this regard once there is some sort of consensus on the matter.

In recent times, a series of mugging and burglary incidents have taken place, especially along a single street in Block C of the staff colony.

Adviser to Vice-Chancellor on campus security affairs Dr Moiz Khan confirmed that such incidents had been reported, but insisted that “relevant measures” have been taken and the “situation is under control”.

A faculty member, who has been a victim of mugging on the campus, said the university officials were unable to take substantive action against the culprits residing inside the university because “they enjoy political backing”.

The adviser to the VC did rubbish the claim, but CSO Mohammad Asif admitted that the guards often face trouble “when they take action against the non-faculty staff” under suspicion.

A glance through the daily diary — roznamcha, as it is called — kept at the CSO office, seen by Dawn, frequently mentions the unavailability of guards on important posts and across the residential area, but things have not moved forward in terms of having enough workforce to monitor the sprawling campus.

A comprehensive plan had been submitted by the CSO office to that of the VC a few years ago, but it has seen no progress even with the change of personnel in the latter office.

Another element the CSO pointed out in this regard was the less-than-ideal patrolling by Rangers personnel based inside the campus. “I have never seen a Rangers patrol inside the campus at night when they are needed the most,” he said, adding that the paramilitary force was paid fuel charges every month for patrolling purposes.

An official of the KU transportation department confirms that “up to 500 litres of fuel” goes under this particular head.

Although the CSO found the presence of Rangers inside the campus to be of no use in watch-and-ward affairs, as “they are called only when things go awry and even then they sometimes don’t arrive quickly enough”, a spokesperson for the Rangers rejected the assertion, stressing that “patrolling continues round the clock”.

Published in Dawn, March 6th, 2022