KARACHI: Community police making unlawful arrests
KARACHI, Nov 26: Although the community police force of the city government does not have the authority to detain any violators of municipal rules, it has arrested a number of people on charges of committing municipal crimes, Dawn has learnt.
According to Section 146D of the Sindh Local Government Ordinance (SLGO) 2001, in case of any serious threat to public health, safety or welfare, or danger to life and property, an official may, in his area of jurisdiction, impose fines or initiate prosecution under the ordinance. Additionally, he can suspend any work, seize goods, seal the premises, demolish or remove work and issue directions for taking corrective measures in the time specified by him.
Well-placed sources told Dawn that the officials or personnel of the community police force were not authorised to arrest any violator of municipal rules and neither were they permitted to harass anyone. However, the police force has arrested dozens of people on a daily basis, holding them in brief detention and releasing them after they have paid the fine for committing municipal crimes.
The sources pointed out that the community police could only issue notices to violators and charge the accused by issuing a ticket for the payment of fines. The law allows for the accused to contest the imposition of the fine in the courts within 10 days.
The city government recently recruited 400 constables and 100 supervisors to form the community police department. The force lacked proper training, however, and there were plans to send them to the Police Training Centre, Saeedabad.
Sources told Dawn that as part of a cleanliness drive, Karachi Nazim Mustafa Kamal directed the relevant authorities to remove graffiti from all over the city and to impose fines on the companies found to have been responsible.
Instead of following the SLGO directives, however, the untrained members of the community police were going to offices and shops and taking owners or employees into custody. These citizens were detained for hours in the Civic Centre because of their involvement in advertising-oriented graffiti.
A victim told Dawn that he was picked up from his Hasan Square shop on Wednesday and detained for hours in a room at the Civic Centre. “The community police threatened that I could be sent to prison for six months,” he complained. “However, they freed me after I paid a Rs500 fine.”
Similarly, Dawn received a number of complaints where citizens alleged that they had been harassed by personnel of the community police on the signal-free corridor from Sharea Faisal to Site.
The executive district officer (EDO) of municipal services, Masood Alam, who is also in charge of the community policing project, confirmed that the law did not give the community police the power to arrest or detain citizens. However, he also confirmed that in the past week, the community police picked up 45 persons on charges of graffiti and brought them to the Civic Centre. “We released them after imposing fines of Rs200 or Rs300 in the presence of an official who has magisterial powers,” he said, adding that the training for the community police force would begin shortly. “We are in touch with the police department and the Airport Security Force in this regard,” he stated.
Mr Alam explained that officials of the city government contacted the person or company whose advertisements were found in the form of graffiti. “We impose a fine if they admit to having been responsible,” he said, adding that the city government had decided to penalise all companies and persons whose advertisements appear in this manner on any wall in the city.