KARACHI: Expressing extreme displeasure over the provincial authorities’ inaction to remove barriers from city streets, the Sindh High Court on Tuesday directed the chief secretary to appear in court on Feb 3.

A division bench comprising Justices Nadeem Akhtar and Muhammad Iqbal Kalhoro ordered the CS to bring with him a detailed report regarding removal of street barriers.

The bench was hearing a petition of a civil rights campaigner and secretary general of the Untied Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, Rana Faizul Hasan, who had sought removal of barriers installed in various localities.

The judges became irked when the petitioner pointed out that the respondent authorities had not so far complied with the court’s earlier order of Aug 8, 2014 for removal of illegally installed barriers in the streets.

The bench issued a notice to the chief secretary and put off the hearing to Feb 3.

The petitioner had submitted that barriers were placed across large number of streets of Karachi restricting freedom of movement of citizens, law-enforcers and emergency workers.

He stated that recently the city witnessed 70 per cent of roads being blocked by placing barriers or other hurdles by residents of areas including Jamshed Town, Gulshan-i-Iqbal Town, North Nazimabad Town, Korangi Town, where a state within state was created.

He submitted that on the pretext of security measures walls were raised along the streets leading to the Bilawal House causing a great deal of inconvenience to the people.

He submitted that several areas/roads of the city had been closed by placing street barriers that caused inconvenience for citizens and restricted their right to free movement.

Besides, he said, armed people had taken positions at the entry/exit points of different areas and they subjected people to questioning before letting them in.

The petitioner stated that despite court orders barriers had not been removed from different areas by the police and Rangers.

He asked the court to direct the respondent authorities to ensure the removal of illegally installed barriers from the streets.

Published in Dawn, January 28th, 2015

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