City govt to let go of surveillance system
The CCTV command and control system will now be jointly managed by the police, Rangers and the home department.
KARACHI:
The city government’s closed-circuit television camera (CCTV) command and control system will now be managed by a joint committee of the police, Rangers and the home department.
The committee will be headed by the home department’s special secretary and the additional deputy inspector general police, a Pakistan Rangers officer above the rank of lieutenant colonel and a senior officer of grade 19 from the City District Government Karachi (CDGK) will be members.
The decision came on Tuesday during the hearing of a petition filed by former MNA Muhammad Husain Mehnti, who is now a central leader of Jamaat-e-Islami, Pakistan. He moved the court after the Ashura blast and arson attacks in which the law enforcers and the city government accused each other of possessing the footage and withholding them.
The petitioner cited the home secretary, the CGDK nazim, the command and control centre incharge, the Capital City Police Officer and the Inspector-General Police as respondents.
After the incident, the CCTV footage would have helped the investigators identify the culprits but neither the police nor the CDGK took the responsibility of providing it, said Mehnti. The system was installed from the funds collected in taxes from residents and it could not be used for their advantage, he argued.
Mehnti also questioned the management of the command and control system installed at Civic Centre. His lawyer, Sarwar Mohammad Khan, said that the CDGK exceeded its authority by spending public money on such a huge project. The control of this sensitive technology should rest with the police and other law-enforcement agencies, he added.
On Tuesday, a division bench of the Sindh High Court, comprising Justice Gulzar Ahmed and Justice Imam Bux Baloch, disposed of the petition with directives to form the joint committee.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 2nd, 2011.
The city government’s closed-circuit television camera (CCTV) command and control system will now be managed by a joint committee of the police, Rangers and the home department.
The committee will be headed by the home department’s special secretary and the additional deputy inspector general police, a Pakistan Rangers officer above the rank of lieutenant colonel and a senior officer of grade 19 from the City District Government Karachi (CDGK) will be members.
The decision came on Tuesday during the hearing of a petition filed by former MNA Muhammad Husain Mehnti, who is now a central leader of Jamaat-e-Islami, Pakistan. He moved the court after the Ashura blast and arson attacks in which the law enforcers and the city government accused each other of possessing the footage and withholding them.
The petitioner cited the home secretary, the CGDK nazim, the command and control centre incharge, the Capital City Police Officer and the Inspector-General Police as respondents.
After the incident, the CCTV footage would have helped the investigators identify the culprits but neither the police nor the CDGK took the responsibility of providing it, said Mehnti. The system was installed from the funds collected in taxes from residents and it could not be used for their advantage, he argued.
Mehnti also questioned the management of the command and control system installed at Civic Centre. His lawyer, Sarwar Mohammad Khan, said that the CDGK exceeded its authority by spending public money on such a huge project. The control of this sensitive technology should rest with the police and other law-enforcement agencies, he added.
On Tuesday, a division bench of the Sindh High Court, comprising Justice Gulzar Ahmed and Justice Imam Bux Baloch, disposed of the petition with directives to form the joint committee.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 2nd, 2011.