AAMIR MAJEED
Amid the 69th Independence Day celebrations in Karachi, a mysterious group of people pasted stickers of the national flag on Shara-e-Sher Shah Soori to show their disrespect to the country, Pakistan Today has learnt.
On Friday, Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) held a rally at Mazar-e-Quaid while the University of Karachi organised a walk and cake-cutting ceremony inside the campus separately. NED University of Engineering and Technology, Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science and Technology (FUUAST) and Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS) held programs to mark Independence Day celebration on the last working day before August 14.
Besides, events were organised in various public and private sectors educational institutions and offices to show solidarity and respect for the country. However, some anti-state elements initiated a hatred campaign in the metropolis from north Nazimabad area of Shara-e-Sher Shah Soori.
This group plastered stickers of the national flag on roads. To strengthen the sticker pasting, they used plastic tape on all four sides of the flag. They carried out this activity from a distance to distance on Shara-e-Sher Shah Soori. To investigate this development when this scribe asked the shop holders and the residents of the area, they claimed that they didn’t know who started it all.
One of the shop owners claimed that this activity could’ve been carried out during late hours of the night, as there is no chance to paste stickers in such an organised way on such a busy road in day timings.
When Gulberg Superintendent of Police (SP) Asghar Usman was contacted for comments, he was found uninformed. He requested this scribe to locate the place from where this disrespect was reported in order to respond on this issue.
Soon after the telephonic conversation with the Gulberg SP, this scribe received a telephone call from Station House Officer (SHO) Zulfiqar Haider of Haidery police station.
“PSP has organised a rally to mark the Independence Day celebrations and groups from the area reached Nursey to join the rally. PSP has no flag and they use national flag as their party flag. There is a possibility that rivals of PSP pasted stickers on roads to fail their show,” SHO maintained.
Haidery Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Chaudhry Liaquat Ali claimed that he visited Shara-e-Sher Shah Soori, but he didn’t find any such disrespect there. He requested this scribe to send him pictorial evidence, but he didn’t respond after receiving the evidence.
West Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Zulfiqar Larik, when contacted for comments on this issue, claimed that he had no idea about this development. He sought some time to confirm this issue to respond accordingly.