Civil rights campaigner Syed Mehmood Akhtar Naqvi had challenged the Sindh Emergency Procurement Act 2014 and the procurement of the APCs.
Naqvi had alleged that the APCs for the Sindh police were being purchased from Serbia at the behest of former SP Shakib Qureshi, who is a representative of former minister Owais Muzaffar. The petitioner claimed that the authorities were purchasing 'second-hand' APCs that had been scrapped in Serbia at a cost of Rs120 million per vehicle.
The same vehicles could be purchased new from the United States at the lower price of Rs40 million each, said Naqvi. He added that he had brought the matter to the attention of the National Accountability Bureau (Nab) under Section 9 of the Nab Ordinance 1999. The bureau was unsatisfied by the briefing of the logistics AIG Tanveer Tahir on April 26.
The Sindh IG's lawyer, Irfan Qadir, submitted on Friday that the locally-assembled APCs used by the police were not effective in countering terrorism. He said that police personnel had lost lives because of these during the Lyari operation two years ago.
The court issued a notice to the managing director of Heavy Industries Taxila to file detailed comments about the quality and standard of the locally-manufactured APCs.
Targeted operations
Karachi AIG Ghulam Qadir Thebo informed the Sindh High Court (SHC) during a hearing of the missing persons case on Friday that the police are conducting targeted operations in accordance with the relevant laws. He said this while explaining the mechanisms and the legality of the targeted operation being carried out jointly by his force and paramilitary troops.
Filing his comments through DIG South Abdul Khaliq Sheikh, Thebo said that the operation was being conducted against criminals by the police and Rangers in line with the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) 1898 and the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) 1997.
He maintained that the operation targeted criminals involved in serious crimes such as terrorism, kidnapping for ransom and target killing.
Police raids were conducted on the basis of information about the presence of suspects involved in criminal offences, said Thebo. The raids were also carried out for the recovery of illegal weapons when information about them was received.
Thebo said that when incidents of terrorism occur, follow-up raids are conducted to apprehend the suspects. However, all such raids were conducted in accordance with the CrPC 1898 and ATA 1997.
Responding to allegations of unlawful detentions, Thebo said that the arrested suspects were produced before the magistrate within 24 hours.
Thebo further said that the Sindh Rangers were operating according to the notification issued by the provincial home department on March 11, and that the details of the Rangers' activities could be explained by their representative. "However, when joint raids are conducted, the offenders are arrested and handed over the police for investigation, apart from those who are detained for 90 days," he added.
Missing persons
Reports pertaining to missing persons were taken very seriously, said Thebo. FIRs were registered and cases were diligently probed. He said that such cases were supervised by senior officers, with regular progress reports submitted to the relevant courts and the commission set up for this purpose.
Thebo reiterated that the raids were subject to the CrPC, with procedures followed in both letter and spirit. Disciplinary proceedings were initiated against deviating officers, he added.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 30th, 2014.
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