KARACHI: Sindh minister for information and local government Sharjeel Memon has said the provincial government is considering declaring areas surrounding Karachi airport ‘red zone’ coupled with a move to screen the areas for security reasons. According to sources, the move to declare airport’s surrounding areas a ‘red zone’ came after the federal government issued a letter to the director general of the Pakistan Rangers, Sindh, and the inspector general of police, Sindh, to submit details of the surrounding areas of Karachi airport to the federal government.

The areas include Pehalwan Goth, Model Colony, Bhittaiabad, some localities adjoining Sharea Faisal and parts of Gulistan-i-Jauhar.

The sources said the provincial security authorities had initiated the process of compiling data of those areas and soon it would be submitted to the federal authorities.

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Mr Memon said the security authorities were carrying out search operations in the adjoining areas of the airport and soon they would be cleared of criminals. The law-enforcement authorities had been directed to secure those areas so that no incident like the attack on Karachi airport occurred in the future, he said.

He said security had not only been beefed up in and around the airport but also at other sensitive places in the province.

Cold-storage facility

The Civil Aviation Authority, meanwhile, failed to establish an alternative cold-storage facility at the airport after the recent attack and the importers stopped importing protective vaccines for children, resulting in an acute shortage of vaccines for pneumonia, measles, typhoid, chicken pox and polio in Sindh.

The cold-storage facility at the airport was destroyed in the fire in the attack carried out three weeks ago and now there is no such facility at Karachi airport to store medicines to maintain their quality.

Pakistan Paediatric Association President Prof Iqbal Memon said importers had stopped importing medicines due to non-availability of a cold-storage facility at the Karachi airport.

Published in Dawn, July 2nd, 2014