Daily Times

KARACHI: As street crime continues unabated with citizens being deprived of their valuables, a victim of street crime has gone to the Sindh High Court seeking directives for Sindh police to efficiently control crime in the city streets.

Advocate Muzamil Mamtaz has petitioned the high court, submitting that there has been significant increase in street crimes with criminals roaming around the city freely and depriving citizens of their valuables.

Police lacks professionalism and policing skills to nail street criminals and control crime in the streets of the city, he added.

On July 16, he said, he was held at gunpoint and was deprived of his mobile phone. If the law enforcement agencies had succeeded in controlling the sale of snatched mobile phones, and other valuables, there could have been decease in snatching of such valuables.

Besides, the petitioner added, the ongoing operation against criminals was being carried out on political basis and pleaded with the judges to direct the security agencies to carry out operation across the board.

The court was further prayed to order them to start operation against street criminals and make the streets of Karachi safe again.

Meanwhile, another bench extended granted to the former president of the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) till July 31st in Rs18 billion corruption case.

A two-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Ahmed Ali M Shaikh adjourned the hearing after its was informed that the counsel for the applicant was busy before the apex court and could not turn up before it.

It directed the counsel for the applicant to come prepared at the next hearing to forward arguments on the bail petitions.

The court had granted bail to Ali Raza upon submission of surety bonds to the tune of Rs 500,000.

The former NBP president had approached the high court fearing his arrest by the National Accountability Bureau in connection with an inquiry regarding corruption in the NBP in Bangladesh.

The petitioner’s lawyer submitted that the inquiry was related to two bank employees, Zubair Ahmed and SM Jahanzeb, who were involved in illegal activities overseas, which caused losses worth Rs 17 billion to the national exchequer.

Raza denied his involvement in the scam, saying that being the president of the bank he was reliant on the group chiefs, who were suppose to check any irregularity on part of the 16,000 employees of the bank.

He told the judges that on August 21, 2015, a NAB investigation officer had issued him a notice to personally appear in connection with the investigation despite the fact he had left the organisation on January 14, 2011.

Published in Daily Times, July 25^th 2017.