Police and neighbourhoods: Residents’ society joins petition to remove risk

SHC asks for DHA to comment before the next hearing.

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court has allowed the Defence Society Residents Association (DSRA) to become a party to a petition that was filed earlier by residents of Phase VIII of the Defence Officers Housing Authority (DHA).

The residents want the court to order the Darakshan police station to relocate and for CID SSP Chaudhry Aslam Khan to live elsewhere as he is on the hit list of terrorists. They have gone to court because of the events that transpired on September 19. Ten people, including a teacher and her son and the SSP’s armed guards, were killed when a suicide bomber rammed a Suzuki pickup laden with explosives into the outer boundary wall of the police officer’s bungalow. Angered parents of the children attending schools nearby and residents decided to go to court.

On Thursday, the DSRA application came up during the hearing of the original petition that was filed by Nasir Jehangir advocate and the residents. After the entities named in the petition, including the Sindh government and Aslam Khan, agreed, the bench allowed the DSRA to join the case as a petitioner.

For its part, the DSRA said that it had received a large number of complaints about the presence of police mobiles, armed guards and barricades prior to the tragic incident of September 19.

It said that the 32nd street of Phase VIII was considered to be a very peaceful residential area where 20 amenity plots have been reserved for education. However, at present only eight schools are operating with a registration of about 5,000 students in the age group of three to 18 years.

Earlier, the bench heard Sohail Hayat Rana advocate, the lawyer for DHA, who asked for more time in order to file comments. The bench allowed the request but with the direction that a copy of the document be provided to the petitioners before the next date of hearing.

Since the respondent government officials and SSP Aslam Khan have contested the case put forward by the residents, the bench also asked the petitioners to file the petition in the proper format by adding the DSRA as one of the petitioners.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 9^th, 2011.