BRUSSELS: Kashmir Council Europe (KC-EU) organized a protest camp on the
occasion of Indian Republic Day (26th January 2023) in front of EU External Action
Service (EU foreign ministry) in Brussels, the capital of Belgium on Thursday to
mark the day as Black Day against the Indian barbarism let loose by Indian
occupational forces.
It is important to mention that Kashmiris, who are suffering from Indian atrocities
for last seven decades, observe the Indian Republic Day falling on 26th January as
black day every year. The peaceful protest camp in Brussels was headed by Chair of
KC-EU Ali Raza Syed.
The participants in the camp holding placards called for freedom of Kashmiris from
Indian occupation. On the occasion, Chairman KC-EU Ali Raza Syed said, India claims of being largest democracy of the world but it refuses the democratic rights of the people of Jammu and Kashmir as atrocities against the people are continued. He said, peace in Kashmir is connected to the whole region. If Kashmir is witness of peace, the whole region would be witness of peace and prosperity.
Chairman Kashmir Council EU Ali Raza Syed said that Kashmiri nation is not ready
to compromise on their right to self determination.On the Indian republic day, we simply want to convey a message to Indian government that there is no point in glorifying the democracy if people are living in miseries under the might of the gun, he said.
KC-EU’s Chairman Ali Raza Syed demanded New Delhi to give right of self-
determination to the people of Jammu and Kashmir. He emphasized that India should
end brutalities against the Kashmiris and fulfil its promise for right of Self-
determination to the people of Kashmir.
He also called the International community to intervene to stop human rights
violations in occupied Kashmir and play its role for just resolution of Kashmir issue.
He said, India is the so-called “biggest” democracy of the world but in reality, it’s not
a democracy because New Delhi is ruthlessly suppressing the democratic rights of
Kashmiris and continuously killing the innocent Kashmiri people as well.
He called the Indian government to stop violations of human rights in occupied Kashmir and fulfil its promise to give right to self determination to the oppressed people of Jammu
and Kashmir.
PESHAWAR: Alongside poverty and climate change, the developing countries including Pakistan were faced with the monster challenge of overpopulation that was exerting an extraordinary pressure on its socioeconomic resources.
According to the UN population report 2022, the world population had crossed the psychological barrier of eight billion population mark in November last year and is expected to reach 8.5 billion in 2030, 9.7 billion in 2050 and 10.4 billion in 2100 courtesy to modern innovations and research in medical and pharmaceuticals sciences that significantly reduced mortality rate.
The experts believed that if the population bomb was not wisely defused, then millions of people especially children and women mostly in SAARC, CARs and underdeveloped states would be exposed to hunger, starvation and malnutrition every year in the wake of global economic recessions and international conflicts including USSR-Ukraine, Kashmir and Palestine that has already put peace of these regions at jeopardy.
The first national population census 1951 had revealed that Pakistan’s total population was only 75 million and 93 million in 1961(Incl East Pakistan), 65.3 million in 1972 (Excl East Pakistan), 80.68 million in 1981, 134.8 million in 1998 and it further jumped to a record 207.9 million in 2017, thus showing a massive increase of 132.9 million during 65 years with a substantial 1.91 percent annual growth rate recorded in 2021.
Being the fifth most populous country and the second largest population in Muslim world after Indonesia, Pakistan’s increasing population has already started exerting tremendous pressure on hospitals, educational institutions, agricultural production, forestry, roads, employment and socioeconomic resources.
Experts opined that food security challenges would be increased in the next few years after the recent devastative flood that caused whopping $40 billion economic and agriculture losses to Pakistan for which an inclusive recovery plan was necessary.
The prices of 80KG and 20KG per flour bag in the open market have swelled to Rs12,000 and Rs2600 respectively while around 300 to 500 hundred patients were regularly being examined in major hospitals of KP having over 30 million population with over 2pc growth rate.
“Overpopulation was the mother of all socioeconomic ills as it leads to poverty, hunger, socioeconomic imbalances, encourages corruption, destroys merit, delay justice and even brings down nations under heavy foreign loans’ burdens,” said Prof Dr. Zilakat Malik, former Chairman, Department of Economics, University of Peshawar said.
Citing a World Bank’s report, he said about six to nine million Pakistanis were likely to be dragged into poverty as a result of last year’s flooding that killed over 1,700 people including women and children, destroyed over two million houses and displaced eight million people besides inflicting around USD 40 billion economic losses to the government kitty. He said the poverty rate was expected to rise between 2.5 and four percentage points as a direct consequence of floods, which caused loss of jobs, livestock, agriculture harvests, houses and an increase in food cost in Pakistan.
He said about 20pc Pakistanis i.e 55 million were reportedly living below the poverty line mostly in underdeveloped districts including merged areas of Pakistan and in the prevailing shabby economic situation and high food requirements in post-flood era, there was a need to make a cut on unnecessary expenditures, development budget, imports bill on luxury goods and ensuring strict implementation of an energy conservation plan.
Dr. Malik said Pakistan produces about 20 percent edible production of its total requirement and was spending approximately US$ 4 billion annually on its import which was very high for an agricultural country. “I have lost my mother in her sixth pregnancy due to my family’s wish for a son,” Nargus Bibi, a resident of Pabbi, Nowshera told the scribe after tears rolled down over her face.
“The desire for a baby boy had deprived my entire family and four sisters from a loving mother, who had worked day and night for our happiness and made us orphans forever,” she said.
Dr. Riaz Khan, Head of the Children Department, Government Hospital Pabbi Nowshera said the chances of mortality of mothers and newborns increase due to lack of spacing among children, inadequate medical checkups and poor nutrition.
He said stunting and malnutrition in children mainly occur in the first three to six months of birth due to an unbalanced diet of lactating mothers.
“The nutritional status of newborns and infants was directly linked with the health and diet of the mother before, during and after pregnancy. I can tell you that about 30 to 40 percent of children were impacted by stunting that could be avoided by adopting contraceptives and reproductive healthcare services in the country including KP.”
Director, the Population Welfare Department, Imran Shah said the KP’s first population welfare policy 2015 had been approved under which the contraceptive prevalence rate would be raised from 28pc in 2013 to 55pc in 2032 while efforts would be made to decrease the fertility rate from 3.9pc to 3.3pc birth per woman and attain replacement level fertility 2.1 births per woman during the said period through the cooperation of relevant stakeholders.
Besides KP reproductive healthcare rights act 2020, he said work on four ongoing development projects worth Rs721.348 million and two new schemes costing Rs54 million was underway focusing on strengthening of social welfare programs.
Rs390. 698 million was being spent on the promotion of social welfare and family planning programs, Rs93.550 million on establishment of adolescents and reproductive healthcare centres, Rs19.041 million on the mobile service unit at Upper Kohistan and Palas Kolai and Rs1161.34 million for the establishment of 260 family welfare centres.
Under the new projects, the regional training Institute at Bannu would be established at a cost Rs 362.782 million while Rs127.767 million to be spent on franchising family planning programs under public-private partnership. He said social-cultural and religious barriers, lack of education, poverty, early child marriages and a desire for baby boys were one of the major constraints making negative effects on family planning program in KP.
Imran Shah informed that 120 family planning centers were approved for merged areas and mobile services were being extended to all those areas where family planning centers were not available.
He said the population bomb was a serious social issue and a collective effort was required especially by media, political leaders, religious scholars and civil society to defuse it before it make our lives miserable.
ISLAMABAD: District and Sessions Court Islamabad on Friday turned down a plea for extension in physical remand of PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry in a sedition case.
Judicial Magistrate Waqas Ahmed Raja has sent the former information minister to the Adiala Jail on 14-day judicial remand. The judge announced the verdict after hearing arguments from Fawad’s lawyer Babar Awan and counsel for the Election Commission of Pakistan.
The PTI bigwig was produced before the court of the judicial magistrate in handcuffs after his two-day remand ended today in the case filed by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for threatening the officers of the electoral body in a speech.
During the hearing, the prosecutor pleaded the court to extend physical remand of the PTI leader as the investigation needed more time to complete the probe. Reading out the content of the FIR, he said the former minister attempted to incite violence against ECP officials and their families.
He said voice-matching test of the suspect had been completed while there was a need to take him to Lahore for photogrammetric test. He also sought permission to search the house of the Imran Khan’s close aide to recover laptop and mobile phone. He said the role of the electoral body was crucial in coming months due to elections but Fawad Chaudhry was trying to put pressure on ECP.
Fawad Chaudhry’s lawyer Babar Awan expressed reservations over treatment meted out to his client, stating that the PTI leader was treated as a “terrorist”. He said the statement of Fawad Chaudhry was reflection of public opinion against the ECP. He also requested the court to discharge his client’s name from the case.
On Wednesday, Duty Magistrate Naveed Khan handed over the PTI stalwart in the custody of Islamabad police on two-day physical remand after he was arrested from his resident in Lahore in a case filed over hurling threats at officials of the Election Commission of Pakistan and their families. The investigating officer had sought eight-day physical remand of the former minister but the request was rejected.
At the outset of the hearing, PTI’s lawyers requested the court to remove the handcuffs of Fawad Chaudhary, Fawad Chaudhary asked the court to tell the Islamabad police not to do this, there are 1500 policemen outside, and he is handcuffed, adding, “I am a lawyer of the Supreme Court, and I want to talk to my family for five minutes and five minutes to my lawyers.”
“It is unfortunate that we are taking revenge against each other in politics,” he said. Fawad requested that the case against him be dismissed, arguing that if the case continued, free speech would end in the country.
The counsel of the ECP, Saad Hassan, read out the text of the FIR. In his arguments, the lawyer said that the ECP is a constitutional institution, and it has all the rights to hold elections. He said that the commission was being targeted under a well-thought-out plan, and the accused tried to provoke the citizens, while they are role models for the public. The purpose of his speech was to provoke the groups.
Saad Hassan told the court that Fawad targeted the families of the ECP members, adding that the PTI leader was promoting hatred against the institution. He went on to say that the people behind the speech also needed to be identified, adding that there was sufficient evidence in the media against the PTI leader.
The ECP lawyer further added that the charges of sedition are also included in the FIR, adding that the members of the Commission are being threatened, the accused has been remanded, and further investigation is to be done.
Saad Hassan, while presenting his arguments, said that the PTI leader called ECP a clerk, to which the former minister again repeated his words, on which the court asked Fawad Chaudhary to come to one side and let the other parties come to the other side.
ISLAMABAD: Former Prime Minister of Pakistan and the central leader of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has said that the existing political system had no capacity to solve the country’s problems and deliver to the masses.
In an interview with VOA, he said that the parliament including the provincial assemblies are inactive and the scope of listening to the dissent opinions by the political parties has ended. He added, that is why the parliament failed to solve the country’s problems in the last five years.
Shahid Khaqan said that in the current political and economic conditions, the country cannot be left to a caretaker government for a period of three months, nor can Pakistan afford an immediate general election. He said that in order to get the country out of the dire situation, all the institutions need to sit and think, which is not happening in their opinion.
To a question that when PTI announced to return to Parliament, why were their resignations accepted, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said that it is not possible to resign today and say to come back tomorrow.
The senior PML-N leader said that the government wants to discuss national issues with PTI Chairman Imran Khan, but this discussion could be done within the parliament. If the PTI was in the parliament, it could have played its role in forming the caretaker government and holding the elections, but they felt it was appropriate to resign.
He said that despite PTI’s non-participation in the Parliament, the upcoming general elections will be held without controversy.
Shahid Khaqan Abbasi asked the judiciary to correct the decisions taken beyond the constitution and law in Nawaz Sharif case.
The former prime minister said that the army should work with the government to abolish the legislation regarding the extension of the army chief’s term, otherwise it will have negative effects on the institution.
MOHMAND: Chairman WAPDA Engineer Lt Gen Sajjad Ghani (Retd) was briefed during his visit to under-construction Mohmand Dam Project that the diversion system is scheduled for completion in November this year, while the project is likely to be completed in 2026.
Member (Finance) WAPDA Naveed Asghar Chaudhry and Member (Power) WAPDA Engineer Jamil Akhtar were also present during the Chairman’s visit to Mohmand Dam Project.
WAPDA is constructing Mohmand Dam Hydropower Project on River Swat, upstream of Munda Headworks in Mohmand District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province.
During his visit to the project today, the Chairman reviewed construction work on different sites, which included re-regulation pond, main dam, spillway, diversion tunnels, access tunnel, power intake, power house, switch yard and irrigation system etc.
He urged upon the project management to strictly adhere to the specifications laid down for construction of the project.
Reviewing the pre and post-flood situations, the Chairman was of the view that concerted efforts are needed to complete this mega project in accordance with the timelines.
WAPDA’s project management, the Consultants and the Contractor will have to work pro-actively in this regard, he further said.
Later, GM and PD, Mohmand Dam Project, flanked by the Consultants and the Contractor, gave a run down of progress on the project. It was briefed that most of the damages, caused to the diversion system by the devastating flood last summer, were got repaired till December last.
At present, the construction work is progressing ahead on all 11 sites of the project, day and night on the sites where feasible.
Mohmand Dam is a multi- purpose project. On completion, it will store 1.2 MAF of water and help mitigate floods in Peshawar, Charsadda and Nowshera.
Besides supplementing 160,000 acres of existing land, it will also irrigate 18,237 acres of new land in Mohmand and Charsadda. Installed generation capacity of Mohmand Dam is 800 MW. It will contribute 2.86 billion units of low-cost and environment friendly hydel electricity per annum to the National Grid.
The project will also provide 300 million gallons water per day to Peshawar for drinking purpose. Estimated annual benefits of the Project stands at Rs. 51.6 billion. A sum of Rs. 4.5 billion has been earmarked for Confidence Building Measures (CBM) in the project area for socio-economic development of the locals.
LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) has summoned the Punjab and Islamabad IGPs over police failure to produce senior PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry in court on a plea challenging his overnight arrest by the Islamabad police.
A petition was filed in the high court, challenging Fawad Chaudhry’s arrest for “threatening” the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) members and their families. The petition was subsequently taken up by LHC’s Justice Tariq Saleem Sheikh. During the hearing, the court instructed police to present Fawad in court by 1:30pm.
The PTI stalwart was taken into custody in the wee hours of Wednesday after he was booked under sections 153A, 506 and 124 A of the Pakistan Penal Code on a complaint lodged by Election Commission of Pakistan Secretary Umer Hameed.
The judge had earlier asked police to present Mr Chaudhry in court at half past one but police refused to comply without a written order. As the court took up the case, Justice Sheikh asked the law officer about the whereabouts of the PTI leader. As the additional advocate general told the court that police had already taken the petitioner to Islamabad, the judge expressed his annoyance and remarked that “the court knows how to have its orders implemented”.
The judge gave police time till 6pm to produce Fawad Chaudhry failing which, he said, he would take an action.
In a short media talk earlier, the PTI leader said security had been placed in a way as a “terrorist” was being brought to court, adding that he was unaware of the charges levelled against him. He also urged people to take to the street against the government. He said former South Africa president Nelson Mandela had also been booked in a sedition case.
The sudden arrest of Mr Chaudhry has angered the PTI leaders including Hammad Azhar and Farrukh Habib who warned of launching countrywide protests and moving court against it.
The PTI leader, according to the First Information Report (FIR), has been booked under sections 153A, 506 and 124 A of the PPC for allegedly threatening the ECP and its members in a televised interview on Tuesday. The FIR carries the excerpt of the former MNA’s statement wherein he alleged that the election commission had become a “Munshi” as the election commissioner signed things like a clerk after they were sent to him by the government.
Fawad Chaudhry said those who would be involved in injustice to the PTI would be pursued until they were punished. He said people should pursue the elements who were deceiving public, to their houses. Expressing reservations about the appointments of some officials in the ECP Punjab ahead of elections, he said if these appointments were not rolled back, “we warn that the election commission and its members will have to pay back”.
The complainant said Fawad Chaudhry had threatened the chief election commissioner, members of the ECP and their families in his speech which he described as an attempt to create hurdles in the electoral process.
“The speech has created a permanent threat for the ECP members and their families,” he said, adding that the PTI leader had attempted to create differences between the government and the ECP. “It is a serious crime to influence the electoral process by issuing threats to the constitutional institutions,” he said, adding that such statements could lead to chaos in the country.
VIRGINIA: A court in the United States sentenced three family members for using a Pakistani woman as forced labor and physically and mentally abusing her for 12 years.
“Zahida Aman, 80, was sentenced to 144 months in federal prison, Mohammed Rehan Chaudhri, 48, to 120 months in federal prison and Mohammad Nauman Chaudhri, 55, to 60 months in federal prison in the Eastern District of Virginia. Additionally, the Court ordered Aman and Rehan Chaudhri to pay the victim $250,000 in restitution for back wages and other financial losses she incurred as a result of the defendants’ criminal conduct,” said a statement issued by the US Justice Department.
The Justice Department said that Aman, Rehan and Nauman were convicted following a seven-day trial in May of last year. The jury had declared the three of conspiracy to commit forced labour, convicted two of the defendants of forced labor and convicted Aman of document servitude.
“These defendants callously exploited the victim’s vulnerabilities and brutally coerced her labor through physical violence and emotional abuse,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division
“Human trafficking is an affront to human rights and to our nation’s core values. The Department of Justice is committed to vindicating the rights of survivors and bringing human traffickers to justice.”
“Human trafficking is a global issue that cannot be tackled alone,” said Assistant Director Luis Quesada of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division. “The FBI will remain committed to investigating all forms of human trafficking and work with our law enforcement partners in combatting the problem.”
Zahida Aman had arranged for her son’s marriage to the victim in 2002, but even after the victim’s husband moved away from the home, the defendants kept the victim in their Virginia home to serve the extended family.
The US Justice Department said that evidence showed that the victim was compelled by the convicts to serve the family as a domestic servant, using physical and verbal abuse, restricting communication with her family in Pakistan, confiscating her immigration documentation and money and eventually threatening to separate her from her children by deporting her to Pakistan.
“The defendants slapped, kicked and pushed the victim, even beat her with wooden board, and on one occasion hog-tied her hands and feet and dragged her down the stairs in front of her children. All of these coercive means were employed by the defendants to compel the victim’s labor in their home,” said the statement.
The evidence also showed that the convicts forced the victim to work every day from early morning.
“They restricted her food, forbade her from learning to drive or speaking to anyone except the defendants’ family members and prohibited her from calling her family in Pakistan,” said the Justice Department.
ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Wednesday denotified 43 lawmakers of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the last batch of the MNAs who resigned en masse.
The development came after National Assembly (NA) Speaker Raja Pervez Ashraf on Tuesday approved the resignations of the PTI MNAs in the lower house despite their request for withdrawal of the resignations, raising the total to 123.
According to reports, the NA speaker had approved the resignations on “January 22 and forwarded them to the electoral body the same day” for further processing.
The news had come after the party announced that its MPs are withdrawing their resignations and returning to the assembly in a bid to claim the posts of the leader of the opposition and chairman of the Public Accounts Committee — a powerful NA body that keeps a check on government spending.
Last week, the Election Commission denotified 80 members of the PTI and Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, Chief of the Awami Muslim League and Imran Khan’s ally.
With the acceptance of 123 resignations, only dissident PTI lawmakers remain in the National Assembly.
Though former prime minister and PTI Chairman Imran Khan has been disqualified from his seat in the Mianwali constituency, he has won from six constituencies in the by-elections of 11 vacant seats of the National Assembly.
He has not taken yet an oath from any of the winning seats while another PTI candidate Maulvi Mehmood, who won the election from the seat that fell vacant due to the death of Dr Aamir Liaquat Hussain from Karachi, is yet to take oath.
On Monday, the PTI approached the ECP that it had withdrawn the resignations and that the commission should not denotify its members.
According to parliamentary sources, the PTI members’ requests to withdraw their resignations were not as per the rules.
The sources in the National Assembly say that the speaker had accepted the resignations of the remaining 43 members on January 22 and sent them to the Election Commission, so email and WhatsApp requests on January 23 were against the rules.
They say the resignations had been accepted on January 22, so on January 23, the withdrawal requests were ineffective.
The speaker had accepted 113 resignations in the last two weeks, while two PTI members Sardar Talib Nakai and Nawaz Alai’s resignations are yet to be accepted for being on leave.
The resignations of PTI members of the National Assembly were approved in four phases: 11 in the first phase, 35, 34, and 43 in the second, third, and fourth phases, respectively.
According to the National Assembly Secretariat, Riaz Fatiyana, Sardar Tariq Hussain, Muhammad Yaqub Sheikh, Murtaza Iqbal, Sardar Muhammad Khan Leghari, Haji Imtiaz Chaudhry, Lal Chand, Jawad Hussain, Nosheen Hamid, Manza Hassan, Saima Nadeem, Tashfeen Safdar, Subia Kamal Khan, Zil-i-Huma, Rukhsana Naveed and Ghazala Saifee are among the 43 MNAs whose resignations were accepted in the last phase.
LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) directed the Punjab government Wednesday to present Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader Fawad Chaudhry before it even if he was taken to Islamabad by the police.
Fawad was arrested from his residence earlier today after he publicly “threatened” the members of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in a media talk outside Imran Khan’s residence in Zaman Park a day ago.
The LHC had ordered authorities to present Fawad before it in response to a petition filed by Fawad’s cousin, Nabeel Shehzad, for the “recovery” of the former federal minister.
The petitioner had filed a habeas corpus plea and urged the court to “recover” the PTI leader, after the Islamabad police acquired his transitory remand. He also appealed the court to stop any illegal action against the PTI leader.
Justice Tariq Saleem Sheikh heard the plea and ordered the authorities to present the PTI leader before the court by 1:30pm. The time was later extended to 2:00pm, but the authorities failed to produce Fawad before LHC.
Interestingly, the orders were issued after a local court of Lahore had approved Fawad’s transitory remand in a sedition case filed against him in Islamabad on the Election Commission’s complaint.
At the resumption of the hearing at LHC, Fawad’s lawyer informed the court that the motorcade transporting Fawad has left for Islamabad.
The government’s lawyer said that he is unable to state Fawad’s exact location.
At this, Justice Tariq Saleem Sheikh asked the lawyer how long it will take for him to inquire about the location. The lawyer said that he needs half an hour.
“Bring him back even if he is taken to Islamabad,” Justice Sheikh remarked before adjourning the hearing for a while.
Hours after Fawad’s arrest, the PTI leader was presented before the court of judicial magistrate Rana Mudassir in Lahore’s Cantt.
The former federal minister was presented before the court by the Islamabad Police to seek his transitory remand.
At the outset of the hearing, the prosecution told the judge that Islamabad Police had registered a case against Fawad. The prosecution also urged the court to approve a transitory remand of the PTI leader.
At this, Fawad’s lawyer argued that the distance between Islamabad and Lahore was of just four hours and there was no need for the transitory remand.
“They [police] should just present him [before a court] in Islamabad,” said Fawad’s lawyer. The counsel claimed that the police wanted to get the transitory remand so they could take his client somewhere else.
The counsel also urged the judge to order the police to uncuff his client’s hands. Instead of both hands only one should be handcuffed, he added.
At this, the judge remarked that the lawyer was wasting the court’s time over frivolous arguments.
Fawad’s lawyer also told the magistrate that a habeas corpus plea was pending before a high court and till that is decided his client’s transitory remand should not be approved. The magistrate then adjourned the hearing for a few minutes.
Once the hearing resumed, the court approved the transitory remand of the PTI leader to transfer Fawad to Islamabad and present him in a court of the federal capital.
However, the police has been asked to conduct a medical of the PTI leader at Services Hospital before he is taken to Islamabad.
KARACHI: The Safe City project in Karachi, which promised the installation of 10,000 CCTV cameras, has been delayed for seven years despite a Supreme Court order to launch the project in 2016.
The joint venture between the Sindh Government and the National Radio Telecommunication Corporation (NRTC) has been plagued by multiple setbacks, resulting in a staggering 300 per cent increase in the estimated cost of the project.
Initially budgeted at Rs10 billion in 2011, when it was approved, the cost of the project has now risen to Rs40 billion. The project was set to include the installation of CCTV cameras, the establishment of command and control centres, the introduction of face and vehicle recognition software, and a biometric system to identify culprits.
Street crime in Pakistan’s largest city has reached alarming levels in recent years, leaving residents feeling unsafe and vulnerable. Incidents of mugging, theft, and violent crime have risen sharply, with police struggling to keep up with the growing number of reports.
The situation has become so dire that many residents have taken to carrying firearms for their own protection. The lack of surveillance in the city is seen as a major contributing factor to the rise in street crime.
Even so, despite plans to monitor the streets, the project has been delayed for over seven years, and is yet to be launched.
In April 2021, following pressure from the federal government of Imran Khan, the province had approved Rs30 billion to launch the project. In May of last year, Syed Murad Ali Shah, the chief minister, ordered his administration to a detailed plan for the project and invite bids for its physical launch within the next four months.
However, despite his order, the plan is yet to take off. The delay is due to multiple reasons including increasing costs, lack of coordination and political wrangling.
The need for surveillance in Karachi is now more urgent than ever. CCTV cameras not only act as a deterrent to crime, but they also provide vital evidence that can be used to bring criminals to justice.
In addition, the installation of a command and control centre, such as the one established in Lahore, and the introduction of the face and vehicle recognition software and biometric systems would also be a major step forward in the fight against street crime in the city.
The ballooning cost and delays from the provincial authorities have raised serious questions about the government’s performance which critics say is nothing short of a travesty.
