KARACHI, Dec 29: There are 55 hostel, school and college buildings in the province which are being used either as police stations, headquarters of law-enforcement agencies or residences of the officials of police , Rangers or other agencies. Among these buildings, 27 are located in Karachi alone.

This was stated by Home Minister Abdul Rauf Siddiqui during question hour in the Sindh Assembly on Wednesday in reply to a question asked by Ms Humera Alwani of PPP.

Responding to her supplementary questions, the minister said it was shameful that the governments since 1992 had been allowing the law-enforcement agencies to occupy the buildings.

He maintained that it was not possible for him to give a timetable for the withdrawal of the law-enforcement agencies from these buildings. However, he added, it was the government's earnest effort to provide the agencies an alternative accommodation.

He advised the opposition to move a joint motion in the house asking the government to spare an amount of Rs500 million for the purpose which, he said, was the only solution to this problem.

The minister also referred to the law-enforcement agencies' readiness to vacate some of the buildings in their possession upon being provided some alternative accommodation.

Earlier, in response to a question asked by the PPP's Aziz Ahmed Jatoi, the minister informed the house that a total of 315 cases had been withdrawn by the provincial government since Feb 1, 1997.

Giving a break-up, he said 151 cases were withdrawn in Karachi, 142 in Hyderabad and 22 in Sukkur. In reply to supplementary questions raised by leader of the opposition Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, Mr Siddiqui said that the details of the cases, with year-wise break-up of the figures, would be provided to the member tomorrow (Thursday).

The minister said that because of the defective system, it had remained the practice of the past governments to institute false cases against innocent people with an aim of victimizing opponents and it was also observed that in some cases, one such person was implicated in scores of cases. But, due to the lack of evidences, litigation took years, he added.

Mr Siddiqui told the house that on the recommendation of the office of the advocate general, which was convinced that it was difficult to prove certain cases, the government had to submit a plea in a court of law to withdraw the same as no case could be withdrawn without consent of the judiciary.