KARACHI: The city administration has decided that the Seaview beach will remain open to the public on New Year’s Eve so that citizens visiting the Seaview beach could enjoy themselves.

Official sources said that roads leading to Seaview will not be closed in order to allow the people to go to the beach.

Special traffic arrangements for the vehicular traffic will be made to avoid traffic congestion.

They said that these decisions were taken in a meeting chaired by commissioner Iftikhar Shallwani at his office on Thursday.

The commissioner said the government did not want to stop people to participate in New Year celebrations at Seaview and other places.

Urged to abide by law and act like ‘civilised’ citizens

He said that Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah had directed the city administration to make special arrangements to let citizens go to the beach to enjoy New Year’s Eve.

The commissioner said that citizens would not be obstructed to enjoy New Year celebrations if celebration were made in a cultured and civilised way.

The meeting participants decided to deploy special police to keep watch on mischievous elements so as to take strict action against those carrying weapons or using narcotics.

He said that those found harassing visitors would also be brought to the book.

The meeting participants decided that Section 144 of the CrPC would be imposed on this occasion. Request will be made to impose the section in this regard to the home department.

The traffic police briefed the meeting participants about the arrangements for the traffic flow to ensure better traffic flow. However the snap checking would be carried out on roads.

The commissioner said that citizens have right to enjoy New Year but they should act like civilised, law-abiding and well-mannered citizens. “Nobody would be allowed to carry weapon, use narcotics, resort to one wheelie or ride a bike without a silencer,” he added.

Published in Dawn, December 28th, 2019