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Karachi: After remaining dormant for one year and eight months, the Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has revived a top-level body to oversee security affairs of the province by convening its meeting on 17 August, 2020.
This will be the 24th meeting of the provincial Apex Committee as it involves top civilian, military, and intelligence leadership of the province to review security and law and order affairs of the province. The meeting will be held at Chief Minister House, Karachi.
The meeting of the Apex Committee has been convened in the backdrop of recurring terror and law and order incidents in Karachi in the recent past including the attack on the building of the Pakistan Stock Exchange and a cracker bomb attack on the rally of a mainstream religio-political party on August 5 in solidarity with the oppressed citizens of Kashmir.
The 23rd meeting of the Apex Committee of Sindh was held on 10th December, 2018 with the chief minister in the chair. Besides the CM, the important members of the Apex Committee are Commander of Corps-5 of Pakistan Army headquartered in Karachi; Director General of Pakistan (Rangers) Sindh, which assists provincial government in maintaining law and order in the province; Inspector-General of Sindh Police; and heads of Intelligence agencies based in the province. The Karachi Police chief attends its meetings as a special invitee.
Maximum number
The Apex Committees were constituted in all the provinces after the deadly terrorist attack on Army Public School Peshawar on 16th December, 2014 to review the progress on National Action Plan (NAP) against terrorism. The Sindh province has convened the maximum number of the meetings of Apex Committee as compared to the other provinces.
The agenda of the upcoming meeting of the Apex Committee meeting includes briefing on latest status of implementation of NAP in the province; progress on “Karachi Safe City Project”; briefing on current security situation of Sindh; security situation of Karachi; mainstreaming of riverine forest areas of Sindh; installation of trackers on motorcycles; and legislation to curb street crimes in Karachi.
The “Karachi Safe City Project” envisages installation of a network of latest closed-circuit television cameras in the city for its digital surveillance. The project involves all the law-enforcement and emergency services’ agencies in the city for a quick and adequate response to tackle any law and order situation. It was proposed that initially the project would be developed on a trial basis in the “Red Zone” of Karachi having all the important installations in the city’s centre.
The previous meeting of the Apex Committee also proposed that special courts be established under the Anti-Terrorism Act of the country to try the criminals using firearms to commit street crimes in Karachi.
