Karachi, July 14, 2018 (PPI-OT): Caretaker Sindh Chief Minister Fazal-ur-Rehman presiding over a high-level law and order meeting here at CM House on Tuesday has said that the caretaker government i was working hard to facilitate political parties to run their election campaign in free and secure atmosphere but all this would be possible when political parties would follow code of conduct in true letter and spirit. The meeting was attended by Chief Secretary Sindh Major (retd) Azam Suleman , DG Rangers Major General Mohammad Saeed, IGP Sindh Amjad Javed Saleemi, Principal Secretary to CM Sohail Rajput, Secretary Home Mohammad Haroon, Commissioner Karachi Sualeh Farooqui, Adl IG Karachi Mushtaq Maher, Adl IG Special Branch Dr Waliullah Dal, Secretary Information Qazi Shahid Pervez, provincial heads of different law enforcement agencies and others.
The chief minister said that his caretaker government has created peaceful atmosphere in which all the political parties are conducting their election canvassing in secure atmosphere. “We are trying to make it more secure by taking some important measures for which all the political parties will have to extend their full cooperation,” he said and added this cooperation includes abiding by code of conduct and informing the concerned district administration priori to their political activities such as corner meetings. Chief Secretary Major (retd) Azam Suleman told the meeting that he had established close coordination with all the agencies such as Rangers, Police and other intelligence institutions so that fool proof security arrangements could be established for general election.
He said that with the approval of the chief minister over Rs1 billion [funds] have been released for making the arrangements for general elections and he is personally monitoring utilization of each and every penny of the public. The chief minister said that there should not be any missing facility at any polling station. “Every polling station should have all the facilities such as water, electricity, security, required furniture, refreshment facilities, CCTV, their accessories and connectivity, generators and UPS etc,” he said.
The chief minister said that he along with IG police and other top officers has visited arrangements in different districts and held meetings with district intelligence committees to make best arrangements. DG Rangers Major General Mohammad Saeed said in order to maintain law and order in the province there was an exemplary coordination among all the agencies working in the province. He said that the targeted operation against terrorists and outlaws was in full swing but “rather to say we have accelerated it during these election days,” he said and added strict checking at all the entry and exits points of the province and cities have been started. The DG said that all the important places, public points, outskirts, katchi abadies and such other places are under strict vigilance and “Inshallah everything will go well and smooth,” he said.
IGP Amjad javed Saleemi told the meeting that he has established a coordination cell in his office where day to day operation and working by SSPs and sub-divisional police officers is shared regularly. He said that threat alerts are there but the coordinated efforts and working of police, Rangers and other intelligence have proved to be successful. “We are also conducting search operations, targeted operation and have started crackdown against street criminals and may street criminals have been arrested so far,” Mr Saleemi said. Adl IG Karachi Mushtaq Maher said that around 1200 candidates are contesting election on national and provincial assembly seats and each candidate averagely holds three corner meetings.
“In this way the police was providing security to 3600 corner meetings daily,” he said and added “this is a major engagement and the police and other agencies are doing it well,” he said and complained that most of the candidates/political parties were not abiding by code of conduct. The intelligence agencies representatives briefing the chief minister said that their people in plain clothes keeping moving from one place to another in the city. “We are scanning each and every important and sensitive area [city] and on our pointation various criminals have been arrested,” they said.
The chief secretary told the meeting that with the approval of the caretaker chief minister three intelligence committees have been formed and notified. The seven-member provincial intelligence committee is headed by Home Secretary and IGP, Divisional Intelligence Committee is led by Commissioner and District Intelligence Committee is headed concerned deputy commissioner and SSP. The added that the purpose of formation of these intelligence committees was to develop peaceful environment for conducting general elections.
These committees are authorized to take cognizance of any local level threat/terrorism related threat and timely share of such threats, if any with all the stake holders. The meeting was informed that 1001 complaints regarding violation of code of conduct have been received so far. 227 complaints have been registered in Karachi, 72 in Hyderabad, 19 in Sukkur, 626 Larkana, 10 Mirpurkhas and 47 Shaheed Benazirabad. The concerned administration has taken appropriate action such as removal of banners, issuance of warning and show notices and imposition of penalties against these violations. The chief minister said that it was a team work and he was glad to know that an effective, vigorous and well-coordinated efforts were in progress.
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