Daily Times

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah presiding over Provincial Public Safety & Police Complaint Commission (PPS&PCC) meeting at the CM Secretariat expressed serious anger over the incident of Nov 22 that claimed the life of Nabeel Hoodbhoy and injured his friend, Raza.

He also approved Standard Operational Procedure (SOP) for setting up police pickets and snap checking issued in the light of Amal Umar case.

The meeting was attended by Advisor for Law Murtaza Wahab, MPAs Sharjeel Memon, Imdad Pitafi, Hasnain Mirza of GDA, Shamim Mumtaz, Mohammad Ali Aziz of PTI, Shahnaz Begum, Home Secretary Usman Chachar, Secretary Finance Hassan Naqvi, AIG Karachi Ghulam Nabi Memon, Members of the commission Karamat Ali, Haji Nazim, Barrister Haya Imam, Rubina Brohi, Advocate Jhamat Mal and Qurban Malano.

The agenda of the meeting was to discuss the incident of 22 Nov 2019 in which a citizen, Nabeel Hoodbhoy, died and another citizen Ali Raza Imam got injured besides reviewing SOP/Rules of engagement related to the use of force as practiced by the Sindh police and implementation status of the orders of Supreme Court in Amal Umar case.

The AIG Police briefing the commission on the incident said that Syed Raza and Nabeel were coming from Khayaban-e-Hafiz in a car when they were asked to stop at Khayaban-e-Hafiz, but they sped up after which the police chased them till PACC where the police party fired upon them. Nabeel received fatal injury and died.

He added that HC Aftab fired five rounds from his pistol, of them four were aerial and one was straight which resulted in the death of Nabeel.

He said that the incident took place at PACC, the jurisdiction of Civil Line police. An FIR No.149/2019 of the case has been registered. The police party comprising SI Ghaffar of Gizri police, HC Aftab and PC Mohammad Ali have been taken into custody. Investigation into the incident under SSP Investigation, South has been ordered. The other members of the investigation include SSP South Shiraz, DSP Akhtar and Inspector Ghulam Ali.

AIG Karachi said that meanwhile, an inquiry under Amjad Hayat SP Sadar has also been started into the incident.

The commission was told that an SOP for `police stop and search’ has already been issued. An aggressive campaign for weapon handling and refresher courses for firing was started after Amal incident. Around 6000 police officers have been trained so far. 7000 official pistols were issued to police officials in the city. New purchase of 4500 pistols was under process. A separate module was being prepared to train the police how to exercise the right of self-defence.

The commission members urged the IG police to transfer those policemen right from constable, head constable, head muhrar and others who were working in a police station from last many years.

The members also urged the police to change the mindset of the policemen working on a police station. People must feel safe and secure in presence of the police not threatened or insecure. “The people of Karachi have reposed confidence in the police after successful Karachi operation and now it is the responsibility of the police department to maintain it through their behaviour and actions,” the chief minister said.

The commission through a resolution condemned the incident of Nov 22 which claimed life of an innocent citizen, Nabeel. AIG Karachi brushed aside the impression of sending policemen on visa (drawing salaries without performing duty) and said Karachi police had an strength of 34,000 but there were 7700 vacancies. Deployment at police stations has been counted as 18670 and 2095 policemen were in police offices.

The commission member expressed serious reservation on the refusal of Ziauddin Hospital for providing medical treatment to the bullet injured person of Nov 22, 2019, Ali Raza and directed home secretary to issue a circular to all public and private hospital to treat injured of police cases, otherwise, initiate action against the refusals.

The chief minister approved SOP for Nakabandi, SNAP checking as was worked out in the light of Amal Umar case.