Security is not in dire straits: Qaim

The Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah reviewed the security details drafted for Sindh to nullify ill designs of miscreants and terrorists across the province.
Qaim Ali Shah in accordance with Rule 215 told the Sindh Assembly on Thursday that his government considered the ongoing sectarian violence in the city as a challenge and had effectively strategized to check the menace. He said that “we have set up pickets on all entry and exit points of Karachi. No one should mind checking of their vehicle, be that a VVIP vehicle with a government flag, of an honor-conscious family or that of the chief minister, all without any discrimination would have to undergo checking”. The CM ordered to cancel all arm licenses which were not computerized and did not bare a photo and CNIC number of the possessor to be cancelled. The CM also directed law enforcing agencies to ensure cancellation of unregistered SIM’s as he thought that cancelling cellular services on occasions of public intrest was not viable. He alos said that all “internal or external elements” deteriorating Karachi’s peace would be dealt with an iron hand after Muharram. Shah said he would refrain from finger pointing, but the issue of sectarian violence was blown out of proportion. Dubbing performance of the law enforcement agencies as “not depressing”, the chief minister deplored the various flaws in the existing legal system that, he said, were allowing even hardened criminals to be bailed out in the Anti-Terrorism Courts.
The CM said that perpetrators of the November 8th deadly suicide attack on headquarter of Pakistan Rangers in the metropolis had been detected and identified from the footage of CCTV cameras. He added that the perpetrators of terrorist attacks on CID head office and Muharram processions had also been detected and were under trial in ATCs. The CM said that “many elements are there to fan and benefit from sectarian violence in the city, but no one from Karachi, Sindh or Pakistan can be a party to such conspiracies”.
The CM said that Sindh IG police and Sindh DG Rangers were complaining to him regarding the granting of bails to hardened criminals and added that he had told them to communicate their grievances to the Sindh High Court Chief Justice. The CM reminded that the Supreme Court last year, in its suo moto notice of the Karachi violence, had issued a 20-point verdict, one of which was to convene monthly meetings of the heads of all law enforcement agencies by the SHC CJ.

Inquiry into police manhandling of journalists

Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah ordered an inquiry into the manhandling of two journalists and lodging of a fake FIR against them by police personnel.
The FIR lodged by SHO Kharadar police station accused two reporters of a local television channel of waging an encounter against the police. The matter came into prominence when journalists boycotted the session of Sindh assembly on Thursday to register their protest. KUJ President G.M Jamali andHabib Khan Ghauri led the protest. Police had stopped two journalists and manhandled them for violating the pillion riding ban even after the journalists proved their identities and had established the fact that journalists were exempt from the ban. MQM lawmaker Khwaja Izharul Hassan and Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Memon pacified the journalist at the media centre. The CM nominated DIG South as an inquiry officer to probe into the matter and said that if the acussed police personnel were found guilty, they would be suspended. Later, Hassan also raised the issue on the floor of the house calling upon the law minister to elaborate on the law relating to journalists’ immunity from pillion riding ban.