Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) Deputy Convener Khawaja Izharul Hassan has strongly criticised a recent controversial statement of the city police chief in which he downplayed the rising street crime by blaming the traders’ community for creating a sense of insecurity in the city through media.
While speaking at a news conference on Sunday, Hassan said that AIG Javed Alam Odho’s statement amid a surge in street crimes was a matter of great concern. “He is a capable officer. He should not forget that he is the chief of Karachi police,” he told a press conference at the party’s Bahadurabad office, where he was flanked by MQM Coordination Committee members and party MPAs.
AIG Odho, while addressing businessmen and industrialists at the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) on Friday, said that former KCCI president Zubair Motiwala, who spoke before him, sounded more like a political leader than a businessman. “Crime rate in Karachi is lower than even some US and Indian cities,” he had claimed.
Hassan said that the police officer’s victim-blaming attempt was irresponsible. “He is a public servant and he should never talk politics. His statement has handed an honourable acquittal to street criminals,” he added. Hassan wondered that the Karachi police chief did not even admit that the city was plagued by street crimes. The MQM leader also criticized Murad Ali Shah who, he claimed, had failed both as chief minister and as home minister of Sindh. While addressing the PPP co-chairman, Hassan said: “Asif Ali Zardari, you kept on taking credit for peace in the city through targeted operations, where is that peace?”
He further said that Zardari should tell who was responsible for street crimes in Karachi. He alleged that the city police, instead of arresting street criminals, were encouraging and even patronising them. “People withdrawing money from ATMs and banks are not safe. It seems criminals have been given a freehand to rob the people of Karachi,” he said.
He criticized the lax attitude of the ruling party towards the provincial police, saying no police officer has been suspended or transferred despite an unprecedented increase in street crimes in the metropolitan city. He alleged that the land mafia was also working in connivance with police in the city.
