KARACHI:
The Sindh government may be convinced that banning motorcycles will help boost security during Muharram processions but the high court fails to see it that way.
Turning down the home department’s request to prohibit the use of motorcycles across Karachi for a week, the Sindh High Court (SHC) has ordered the authorities to impose such restrictions only as an extreme measure at the most for two days - Muharram 9 and 10 - and that too within specific areas and during specific hours with proper public intimation.
On Tuesday, SHC Chief Justice Mushir Alam, heading a division bench, took up the provincial government’s application asking the court to reconsider its previous order on banning motorcycle riding in Karachi. The chief justice had earlier overthrown the ban imposed on the first day of Muharram by the Sindh home department on the interior ministry directives.
The government had later withdrawn its notification, but the high court extended its orders for a suspension of ban, restraining the government from re-imposing the ban in the future.
As the court took up the matter on Tuesday, additional chief secretary for home, Waseem Ahmed, and Advocate General Abdul Fattah Malik pointed to the bomb blast in Abbas Town, where a motorcycle was allegedly used.
Malik said there was credible information that motorcycles could be used for a far more damaging and devastating effect to the peaceful environment of the city. Some regulatory directives were issued by the home department whereby parking motorcycles around Imambargahs across the city has been banned.
The judges were of the view that the restriction was sufficient to safeguard the people against any such attack. But the advocate general appealed to the court to modify its previous orders to the extent that the provincial government may be allowed to ban motorcycles for a week - from November 19 to November 25.
Opposing the request, Shahab Sarki, the general secretary of the SHC Bar Association, said the “blanket ban” proposed by the government would be in total negation of the constitutional rights on the citizens’ movement. “There could be, however, a reasonable restriction that may perhaps be put in place in public interest,” he added.
To this, the advocate general assured that the government was taking all measures to control law and order in the city. The 10-day ban, as requested, was imperative to protect the lives and properties of the citizens in the highly charged environment during Muharram, the government representatives said.
Malik further assured the judges that on instruction of the home special secretary, the ban on motorcycles would only be imposed, if at all needed, as the last and extreme resort and not otherwise.
The petitioner, Shahab Sarki, objected that if at all any suggested restriction was imperative, it could be imposed on a public holiday so that over 1.5 million motorcyclists may not be deprived from going out to their workplaces or carry out routine chores. To this, Mushir Alam noted that the suggestion appeared “reasonable”.
“Under the circumstances, if at all, there is serious and credible information and serious security concerns, as an extreme measure of last resort, ban or restriction on the use of motorcycles in public interest may be imposed on 9th and 10th Muharram only for such period and area as may be notified well in advance by the Sindh government and wide publicity is given for the information of general public,” the judges wrote in their order. The hearing was then put off for one week.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 21st, 2012.
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