KARACHI: The Karachi police have sought personal details of the residents of Lines Area and PECHS under a security plan for the Oct 18 rally of the Pakistan Peoples Party near the Quaid-i-Azam’s mausoleum with a ‘request’ to keep their movement limited from Oct 16 to 18 when hundreds of thousands of PPP workers and supporters are expected to be in the city from different parts of the province, it emerged on Tuesday.

The forms given to the residents of these neighbourhoods by the police stations of their respective areas require every detail of the inhabitants, from the number of persons in a family to their names and profession to their personal contact numbers.

When contacted, most residents, who were not comfortable about sharing extensive details with their area police, said personnel from the law enforcement agency were visiting their homes in plain clothes and asking to return the filled forms within an hour.

“The guardian of the family is asked to fill all the required details,” said a resident of PECHS block 2. “They are always in a hurry and say it’s mandatory. We have filled the form and returned it to the policemen, but frankly we are not comfortable about sharing these details with the police. The form now carries information on mobile phone, residence and office contacts of all of our family members.”

The police form also required information on the place of work, at what position they worked and for which organisation, said residents who were also asked to keep their vehicles away from their homes from Oct 16 to 18.

“Though the form doesn’t mention any directives, the policemen who visited us in plain clothes have told us that due to tight security arrangements we would not be able to move freely from Oct 16 to 18. The roads would be blocked with containers so it would be advisable to keep our vehicles parked at least two miles away from the place of the rally,” said another resident of Lines Area.

He said the policemen ‘advised’ him that it would be better for him to keep his car away from his home or street on Oct 16 as once the roads were blocked for security reasons, he would not be able to bring out his vehicle for at least two days.

The PPP plan to reinvigorate the party through a rally on the ground close to the Quaid’s mausoleum is seen as a major move of the party in the province after a series of public gatherings and sit-ins by the Pakistani Awami Tehreek and the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, which also staged a successful political show in Karachi last month.

The ruling party’s renewed activism under the young chairman, Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, is likely to mobilise its workers in Karachi and other strongholds in the province, but the approaching event for sure would not be a pleasant experience for those living around the mausoleum. The authorities argue the measures are part of the security plan which can’t be ignored due to the high level of risk and threat.

“It’s only to seek people’s support to keep the event peaceful,” said city police chief Ghulam Qadir Thebo. “There are intelligence reports that indicate a high threat level on Oct 18, but we have to meet the challenge and for that we have to take every possible measure required for that purpose. A survey of the neighbouring residential areas is part of those measures.”

He denied any verbal directives to the residents of PECHS and Lines Area on their movement from Oct 16 to 18.

“Apart from surveys of the neighbouring areas of the Quaid-i-Azam’s mausoleum, we have an extensive plan which envisages security of every individual. Our force would cover the outer cordon of the venue while the PPP would take care of the inner one,” said the city police chief.

“But the security of the outer cordon is not that simple. We have to take care of every route which leads to the venue and then provide security to the politicians, senior government officials and other people attending the rally. It’s a mammoth task and we need people’s support for it.”

Published in Dawn, October 15th, 2014