KARACHI: Police fail to determine limits of 106 stations: Year’s work goes waste
By Arman Sabir
KARACHI, Nov 10: Police have failed to complete the re-demarcation of more than 106 limits of the police stations in the city, despite the lapse of more than a year.
Well-placed sources in the police department say that the re-demarcation of the jurisdictions of the existing police stations in the city was initiated in August 2001 under the police department restructuring plan, but it was abandoned for unknown reasons.
After the reorganization and restructuring of the police department in 18 towns, it was observed that some of the police stations overlapped two towns or union councils, which could create problems in future for police and the elected representatives.
It has been proposed that the number of police stations, ie, 106 should not be increased. At some places a police station covers two or three union councils and at others it covers one union council, depending upon the population of the union councils.
The Paposh Nagar police station is not a notified police station and the cases are registered at the Nazimabad police station. However, the Nazimabad police station lies in the jurisdiction of Liaquatabad Town and the Paposh Nagar police chowki lies in North Nazimabad Town.
The residents of the Paposh Nagar are faced with severe problems as they have to go to North Nazimabad Town to solve their civic problems and the problems of police nature are reported to Liaquatabad Town.
Similarly, the Sir Syed police chowki is in North Nazimabad Town working under the Buffer Zone police station which is in the jurisdiction of New Karachi Town.
The Boat Basin police chowki works under the Clifton police station and it lies in the precinct of Saddar Town, while the Clifton police station comes under Clifton Town.
The police department has not considered a reduction in the number of police stations in the city. The sources say that at present there are 105 police stations in Karachi; 27 in defunct district South, 15 in Malir, 24 in East, 17 in West and 23 in Central.
Among these police stations at least seven are “unauthorized” for want of notification by the provincial home department. These police stations are Sir Syed Town, Hyderi Market, Rizvia, Shamim Shaheed, Paposh Nagar, Boat Basin, Nasir Colony and Pakistan Bazaar in Orangi Town.
Law experts maintain that a police station cannot be established unless it is notified by a competent authority in the provincial government. They say if a police station is established without being notified, it will be of no legal status.
Dawn interviewed a number of seasoned police officers (both serving and retired) and most of them are of the opinion that an increase in the number of police stations is not the solution to the problem, rather it will aggravate the situation.
They claim that increasing the number of police stations in the past did not serve the people in general. Police established stations at KMC markets, parks and even on the plots belonging to people, which tarnished their image.
A police officer says that the study of the crime statistics in Karachi shows that criminal activities always multiply with the increase in the number of police stations.”
Another officer says that the government does not usually grant funds to police stations to meet their running expenses and police high-ups are always forcing their subordinates to produce results. Strict orders from their superiors have brought the officials at police station under mental stress and they are compelled to extort money from people one way or the other.
For this purpose, he says, police themselves have to encourage unsocial and illegal activities such as gambling dens and brothels, and a certain amount of the ‘income’ from these activities is given to police to be spent on meeting their running expenditure. “This is the practice in more or less every police station in Karachi”, he claims.
He is of the opinion that a considerable reduction in the number of police stations and adequate funds for running their expenditure will help eliminate crimes to a great extent. Many seasoned and retired police officers bear out what the officer says.
