Karachi News


DAWN/The News International, KARACHI	14 November 2008, Friday, 13 Ziqaad 1429

www.karachipage.com (click on underlined key-words/dates to get more details)
MQM delegation calls on Ulema
Bodies found
Drubbed bandit succumbs to injuries
6 vehicle lifters held
NAB drops all corruption cases against politicians (more)
Iranian diplomat kidnapped in Peshawar (more)
Forces pound militants’ hideouts in Shabqadar (more)
2 militants among three killed in Swat (more)
Taliban preparing for showdown in Mohmand (more)
Isaf chief refuses to discuss drone attacks (more)
MQM delegation calls on Ulema
A four-member delegation of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), visited Dar-ul-Uloom Naeemiya on Thursday. The MQM’s delegation included Member Rabita Committee Waseem Aftab, Sindh Minister for Information Technology Raza Haroon, Sindh Minister for Auqaf Abdul Haseeb Baig and Member Sindh Assembly Shoaib Ibrahim.

According to a statement issued by MQM, the participants of the meeting expressed their concern over the prevailing law and order situation in the city.

They said that maintenance of peace in the metropolis must be the topmost priority of all inhabitants of Karachi. They observed that tranquility in Karachi was significant for the continuation of industrial, trade, religious and social activities in the city.

The Ulema assured their every possible cooperation for the maintenance of law and order in the city and using their influence to resolve the differences, if any.

It was also agreed that the ongoing development process in the city, which has also been acknowledged at international level, should be continued without any hindrance with the cooperation of provincial and federal governments.

Bodies found

A bullet-riddled body of an unidentified, 45-year-old woman was found in an empty house C-146, Bhatti Abad, Gulistan-e-Jauhar, block 9 in Sachal police jurisdiction. Some area people spotted the opened main entrance of the house. One of the area people entered the house and saw a body of a woman in a pool of blood. They immediately informed the police. The mobile van of the said police station reached the spot and shifted her body to ASH for legal formalities. Meanwhile, a decomposed body of a young man was found floating in the Hub Dam, Mangopir police limits on Thursday.

Drubbed bandit succumbs to injuries

The bandit who was “saved” from the fury of a mob by the Kalri Police on Wednesday night, died in the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, Ward No. 16, on Thursday morning. According to details, the man was still unidentified at the time of his death, but his age was estimated to be around 20 years old.

According to the MLO, JPMC, Dr Dileep Khatri, the cause of death had been head injury, apparently as a result of the severe beating up by the crowd with sticks and stones.

“The man had been unconscious since we took him to the emergency ward last night,” said ASI Munawwar of the Kalri PS.

The bandit’s two other accomplices are on the run, when they managed to abscond after first stabbing Police Constable Ahmed Khan, and then firing at him, and killing him. However one of the unidentified men were ‘rescued’ by the police, when the crowd incensed at the killing of the policeman, sprung on him violently and beat him with sticks and stones. At the time they attempted to set him alight, the police came and took hold of the situation. While the police say this is an atrocious new ‘fashion’ which has begun, the residents of the area say that it is perfectly justified.

“Who says we can’t beat him up?” says a 20-year-old man, Nayyar Ahmed, who had been part of the mob. “This man was a bandit. Had we only grabbed hold of him and given him to the police, they would have let him go. It is about time the society gets hold of these criminals and deals with them itself.”

The story had begun when PC Ahmed Khan, had been stationed for a confidential assignment given by senior police officers, to keep a lookout for a suspect, at the main Niaz Chowki, near Daryabad. He was unaware of the fact that he was himself being watched by three petty criminals, who were more interested in getting him out of their way. This he only knew when the three of them approached him from behind, took out a dagger and stabbed him in his side, an attack which was sudden and unexpected.

Niaz Chowki, near Norrani Masjid, itself falls within the jurisdiction of the Kalri Police Station, and is a busy market place, where a variety of items are sold. As night falls however, residents of the area say the place changes its image and ‘newer’ markets are reopened. An old man describes it as a place for “black businesses”.

After the bandits, whose ethnicities were described by the area people as men of ‘Makrani’ descent, a resident of the area, Umair son of Abdullah, slipped away and came to the Kalri police Station to report the murder. By the time the police received the tip off and reached the location, they found that the man was unconscious and was sprinkled with kerosene and was about to be set on fire.

An FIR was filed against the bandit. The question is what has triggered mob lynches, and is this socially a justified act? Opinon makers and experts were asked this question by The News.

According to Fateh Burfat, Chairman of the Department of Criminology, university of Karachi, the basic reason for this trend of mob lynching has now begun, after people have lost their faith completely in the justice system. The justice system which comprises the police, the courts and the prisons have deteriorated to such an extent that people have now refused to have confidence in any justice being meted out to them.

“The word ‘lynch’ has come from British constitution from the 18th and 19th centuries,” says Dr Burfat. “It means that the people act when there is absence of the law.”

“I would say that the main trouble is because of so much gap, and mob lynching as you can see usually happens in areas where there are more underprivileged people, such as Lyari, a prime example of Karachi’s downtrodden area, where there are no civic facilities, a high rate of unemployment, and a very large gulf between upper classes of the city.” Frustration, as described by Dr Burfat, has also been concurred upon as the major reason, also by Additional IG Sindh, Niaz Ahmed Siddiqui, who says that this is a completely unjustifiable act.

“Taking the law in their own hands suggests to the superficial dissatisfaction with the law and order situation, but it also points towards anarchist tendencies,” he says. “There is a state where we all function, and we must abide by laws, or else there will be chaos. People must not do this. But I can still understand the fact that people are displeased with the system, all of which has been decayed by years and years of corruption.”

Justice Nasir Aslam Zahid, who provides legal aid for inmates to the Women’s Jail and the Youthful Offenders Industrial School (YOIS), says that the government should not just simply give their comments after such incidents, they should also probe into them and take them seriously.

“Why is that terrorism, which doesn’t exist in the city, is given so much importance, but at the same time, the problems of the people are not taken into consideration?” says Justice Zahid. “I do not believe that there is no moneyfor taking on this issue. We have money, its just that we don’t have a proper system of investigation, and most of all, we don’t convict people.”

Justice Zahid compares Pakistan with the UK, saying that Pakistan has only a 10 percent rate of conviction, whereas in the Crown Court of the United Kingdom, the conviction rate is 95 percent, based on proper investigation.

“We are heading towards anarchy,” echoes renowned writer Amar Jaleel.

“What else could be worse than someone being the judge of a situation and killing whoever they want to? Did anyone wait and ask those bandits why they had to lean towards crime?”

Jaleel says this indicates a total failure of the government.

“No one is safe.” he commented.

6 vehicle lifters held

A police party of Bin Qasim Town apprehended six vehicle lifters from Pipri area and recovered five snatched motorcycles from their hideout.

According to SSP Bin Qasim Town Abdullah Sheikh, they received information that a gang of car and motorcycle lifters was hiding in a house in Pipri area, following which a police party raided the hideout.

After some resistance the police arrested six suspects who were identified as Asif Khoso, Zameer Abro, Hubdaar Abro, Maloof Abro, Abdul Haq Peerzado and Shakeel. A search of their hideout yielded in the recovery of five motorcycles which were lifted from different parts of the city.

Police claimed that the gang also used to operate in Steel Town and National Highway and they had been disposing of heavy vehicles to interior Sindh the same day.

A case has been registered in this regard and investigation was underway.

NAB drops all corruption cases against politicians

ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has dropped all corruption cases against politicians, both the government and the opposition, but is still working on 3,336 cases involving embezzlement of more than Rs 170 billion.

Despite the fact that corruption cases involving over Rs 500 billion were dumped under the controversial National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO), the NAB has still a vital role to play, if the government allows it.

Besides the NRO, political pressure has also forced the NAB not to touch cases involving corruption of about Rs 200 billion, including the recent JUI-F land scam in DI Khan. After the federal law minister’s statement that the government was considering to allow only a parliamentary committee to probe corruption cases against politicians and that no other national institution, including the NAB, would be able to take action, top NAB officials have now practically started avoiding corruption cases involving politicians, both from the government and the opposition.

The NAB, which used to launch probes even on newspaper stories like that on the Bank of Punjab scam last year, is now inactive in the case of the JUI-F scam and other such reported cases. The process of accountability has, for all practical purposes, come to a standstill.

The NAB, after its creation in 2000, was widely accused of carrying out selected accountability by only targeting the anti-Musharraf political forces. Many cases undertaken by the NAB also proved the fact that this top accountability bureau worked under the guidelines and pressure of the then-military dictator only.

Official documents show that the NAB has recovered and deposited in the national exchequer an amount of more than Rs 225 billion of looted money in about eight years. It is yet another disclosure that this organisation has received for its expenses a total amount of Rs 4.6 billion from the date of its creation to date.

This means that Rs 50 were returned to the national exchequer for every one rupee spent. Top officials said had the NAB been allowed to continue its intense and complicated process, including many of the cases scrapped under the NRO, the national exchequer could have received an additional amount of more than Rs 400 billion in one year alone.

Top officials attached with different cases, which were scrapped under the NRO, show documentary evidence as to how the NAB and other agencies had almost got every proof in most of the corruption cases when the NRO was promulgated.

While responding to The News, a senior NAB official replied in writing that presently a total of 540 corruption cases involving Rs 62.1 billion were at the inquiry stage. His reply further revealed that a total 312 cases, involving Rs 31.5 billion, were at the investigation stage while 670 cases, involving embezzlement of Rs 53 billion, were under trial after completion of the investigation.

The data obtained by The News further says that a total of 1,531 cases, involving corruption of Rs 3.9 billion, were under trial in special/banking courts and 283 cases, involving embezzlement of Rs 9.7 billion, were at the appeal stage.