Chairman Senate Committee on Interior addresses the press

KARACHI : Chairman Senate Standing for Interior, Senator Talha Mehmood Ahmed has alleged that foreign agencies are fully involved in disturbing the law and order in Pakistan. “The information available with us establishes their full involvement in disturbing law and order, bomb blasts etc.”, he said while addressing a press conference at Karachi Press Club here Friday after two days of meetings with Police, Rangers and Coastguards.
He said that these agencies are using our people for their nefarious plans.
He said there is need for having a crash program to deal with the situation through well conceived planning and programming so that people are provided security of life and property and their problems are solved.
The Senator said that all the agencies working in the country should function within their prescribed parameters.
Quoting one example, he said, that Coastguards are meant to keep watch at the coast, but instead they have come on the roads.
He referred to setting up of Coastguards check post at Uthal and said people of both Sindh and Balochistan are facing lot of problems because of this check post where men, women and children coming from and going to Balochistan have to wait for hours for their physical search and of their vehicles.
Senator Talha referred to his meetings with the Rangers on Thursday and said that if this Force is to be deployed here on permanent basis, then the government should provide them accommodation to be owned by them because at present they are putting up in various buildings.
He said that both the police and Rangers need to be equipped properly and provided with required equipment and vehicles.
He pointed out that Karachi is country’s most important city which is faced with problems like unemployment and provision of security to the life and property of citizens.
The Senator said that there is need for these two forces to have strong intelligence networks.
With reference to the committee’s briefing at Police Head Office, Talha Mahmood observed that police have failed to maintain law and order and a major evidence to this fact is that recently people burnt three dacoits alive showing that people have lost their trust in the police and now they take law in their own hands.
He said that in order to have public confidence revived in the police, this department will have to set right its affairs.
Senator Talha Mahmood informed that some time back a gang of dacoits was arrested and one of its members was a sitting Inspector of Police who was arrested previously also but was let off after he paid Rs 7 lac.
“We are ourselves promoting corruption”, he said and elaborated that when motorcycle mobile cops would be provided 1.5 liters of fuel and police mobile 3.5 liters for 24 hours, they will have no other option to meet their requirements from the public.
Replying a question, he said, that Police are procuring Hepatitis vaccine for the force to protect the cops from growing cases of the fatal disease.
He said the IGP has assured that he would make every endeavor to set the things right.
Talha Mahmood said that police here needs to be given package that of Motorway Police. He said they will certainly show performance if made to work for 8 hours with a weekly day off, provided health and education facilities, honourable living conditions and equipped properly.
He was more critical of Coastguards and said their intelligence network was total failure.
The Senator said that Rangers, Police and Coastguards needs to be strengthened with man power. He suggested that recruitment for them should be made from local population and for this purpose quota of Sindh and Baluchistan should be increased which is at present 22 percent for Sindh and 6 percent for Balochistan.
As regards complaints against Uthal Check Post of Coastguards, Chairman Standing Committee said he has sought a report from the Force within 15 days as to how to manage this post which may help solve problems of people.
He said if Coastguards fails to make it a point, the Committee will recommend that this checkpost should be dispensed with. At the outset of his press conference, Senator Talha Mahmood said that he became a member of the Senate two years back and since then his committee has done lot more than 30 other Senate Committees and added that this committee has visited places which were never visited for the last 60 years.
Chairman Standing Committee for Interior said that it is an achievement of this committee that for the first time an effective action is being taken against illegal SIMs.
He said out of about 90 million SIMs, NADRA has so far verified over 45 million SIMs and has informed that there is no record of seven million SIMs.
He said that illegality in this business can be judged from just one example whereby, when an accused was arrested, 11000 SIMs obtained on just one identity card were recovered from him.
He said it was this committee which discovered a fraud of 70-80 billion rupees in CDA and proved that allotments of some 3.94 lac plots were made wrongly.
“Our all out effort is that whatever we could do within our assigned parameters do it as far as humanly possible”, Senator Talha said.