HYDERABAD: Several hundred shopkeepers and traders on Thursday continued their protest against the sealing of their outlets by the police in line with a Supreme Court judgement pronounced in 2019 that the Sindh police should utilise their properties only for policing purposes.

The authorities in Hyderabad have sealed the shops, constructed years ago on police property with an agreement, and pasted notices at a ground-plus-four-storey residential plaza, Al Raheem.

The plaza also houses a private-charitable hospital that caters to the healthcare needs of middle and low-income groups and it has suspended its services immediately after notice by police in compliance with the superior court’s order.

Sindh police own 1,258 properties where either shops or godowns have been built across Sindh.

An official of the police’s estate wing said that shops in Al Raheem Plaza have been sealed. 117 shops were located in Chotki Ghitti’s four shopping centres and 142 shops and 100 offices were located in Al Raheem Plaza, including offices.

“Flat owners had been given a sub-lease by the police department in 1991 and their leases had expired in 2022”, said the official. Al Raheem Plaza was constructed in 1991 when the district was headed by SSP Akbar Arain.

Published in Dawn, July 10th, 2026