While hearing the Karachi law and order case on Wednesday, Justice Anwer Zaheer Jamali of the Supreme Court said police was operating at the behest of politicians, adding that officials were more loyal to political parties than to their own institution.
A five-member larger bench of the Supreme Court headed by Justice Jamali and including Justice Khilji Arif Hussain, Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmany, Justice Amir Hani Muslim and Justice Gulzar Ahmed heard the case pertaining to violence in the country’s financial hub.
During the hearing, the bench ordered the government to abolish the formation of groups on basis of language.
The court reprimanded the Sindh advocate general (AG) over his reply to a query about the death toll in Karachi.
To the AG’s reply, Justice Sarmad Jalal Usmani angrily questioned was the killings scoring for a match where fours and sixers were being hit?
Justice Jamali said the menace of extortion had increased to such an extent that areas in the city had been divided, no-go areas existed on political basis and one political worker could not go to another’s territory.
“This year more strikes and extortion incidents occurred, the traders are being targeted, no trader or industrialist is safe, there is hardly anyone who is not paying extortion money,” he said.
Sindh Rangers Director General Maj General Rizwan Akhtar and Sindh Inspector General (IG) Mushtaq Shah also appeared in court.
The bench inquired of the Rangers DG what measures had been taken to provide protection to the city’s businessmen.
The DG said along with police, an additional contingent of Rangers had been assigned for the purpose. Justice Jamali said the issue of extortion was so prevalent that groups had divided regions amongst themselves. The bench asked the Rangers DG if there was any pressure on him from any quarters. To this, Akhtar said there was no pressure and that the police and Rangers conducted joint operations independently.
Justice Khilji Arif Hussain said instead of issuing arms licences to citizens, the police should fulfil its responsibility of protecting the citizens.
Justice Jamali said elected representatives and ministers facilitated issuing of arms licences in order to increase their vote bank and, therefore, engaged in corruption.
He said even certain criminals who were wanted in several cases were issued arms licences, adding that there was no system of check and balance.
The Rangers DG, when questioned by Justice Anwar Zaher Jamali, told the court that they had deployed additional force for morning and evening shifts and immediate action was being taken on information about criminals.
Justice Amir Hani Muslim intervened, saying, “You catch criminals and hand them over to the police, you can neither register a report nor present the charge sheet, this gives the criminals a way out.”
At one instance, Justice Arif Khilji addressed the Sindh IG and said it was unfortunate that inept people were being recruited everywhere, while those making the merit did not get a chance.
The IG told the court that a police officer who was politically strong would not obey orders and that officer could even get him transferred.
Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali inquired whether the major reason of failure was political intervention and how many police officers possessed confirmed political support? The IG replied that he had directed for preparing service books of all officers within a week.
Justice Anwar said thousands of weapon holders had died, but their licences were still under use. He said the quotas for issuance of 200 weapons licences to MPAs and 300 to MNAs was corruption, as these people wanted to enhance their vote bank.
Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Wasim Ahmad told the court that chief minister’s weapon quota was unlimited.
The hearing was subsequently adjourned until Thursday.