Karachi: A Pakistani provincial police chief on Tuesday said police were not able to remove the barricades and security walls around the residences of two former presidents in Karachi due to security reasons.
The admission by Gulam Haider Jamali, the inspector-general of Sindh police, came while he was addressing a function for distributing financial rewards to the families of the policemen who lost their lives in the line of duty.
The Sindh High Court (SHC) last month had ordered the city administration to remove all the barriers from the residential areas to ensure the basic right of movement and access to the citizens and submit the report about the security fencing built around the government offices, consulates and political parties’ offices.
The orders came after the law enforcement agencies failed to earlier such orders issued by the Supreme Court of Pakistan in 2013.
“We cannot remove the high walls and barricades around the Bialwal House and [that of former ruler] general Pervez Musharraf because of security purposes,” Jamali told the media during his address.
In the latest such petition, Rana Fazal, in his individual capacity, filed the case in the SHC complaining that a road passing along Bilawal House, the residence of former president Asif Ali Zardari named after his eldest son, was closed by erecting a high wall.
Besides, the two homes of the former presidents, 70 per cent of residential streets in the city had been closed by installing barriers at entry and exit points. After the orders of the apex court, the barriers were removed but a large part of the city remained under barricades.
The chief of Paramilitary Rangers last week warned citizens to voluntarily remove the barriers from their houses and on streets and gave a 72-hour deadline for the removal. However, the deadline has passed.
Touching upon the other law and order issues, the police chief said that because of the rampant crackdowns against the criminals and shooters in the city, now the targeted killings had come down to zero which peaked at seven to eight murders on average until recently.
Jamali further said cases of extortion were also under control now whereas in the interior on Sindh the cases of kidnapping for ransom also came down significantly.
The inspector-general distributed cheques of two million rupees (Dh71,983) to each of the families of 23 police officials who were killed in the city while performing their duties.
Cash payouts totalling 20 million rupees were also distributed among police officers for their outstanding performances in 44 cases.
