Fighting crime: CPLC invites Szabist students to do their bit for Karachi

The event aimed to spread awareness among the students regarding the duties of the CPLC.

KARACHI: Ahmed Chinoy had been at the receiving end of mugging attempts thrice before he became the Citizens Police Liaison Committee chief. He revealed this at a seminar, titled Empowering Karachi, organised by a group of seven students working to raise awareness among the youth. 

The CPLC chief announced to launch the ‘Youth Complaint Cell’ at the CPLC from November 19. “This unit will have a separate helpline to address the problems faced by the youth,” he said. “Cybercrime is one of the main offences that this unit will be dealing with, besides complaints of mobile snatching and muggings.”



Chinoy also asked the youth to volunteer for the CPLC and do their bit for the eradication of crime in the city. He offered the students to visit the CPLC offices, spend time with the officials, after which they would be sent out on assignments to observe the crime situation in different areas.

“Our main objective is to observe and analyse. We analyse the most sensitive hours, crime hotspots and vehicles that are most susceptible to theft and then work accordingly”, he said, sharing the committee’s recipe for success.

The CPLC chief also warned the students not to fight the system. “If you fight the system, you create enemies, which will create hurdles for you to move ahead,” he reasoned. “It is a slow-paced fight. You become the part of the system and then fight to improve it gradually. This is exactly what we are doing,” he advised.

On a question regarding rumours that political parties were harbouring criminals, he eagerly concurred with the observation. Chinoy admitted that even institutions were highly politicised, but highlighting the relationships between politicians and criminals was not beneficial to law enforcement agencies. “Our job is to arrest the criminals, not label their affiliations with political parties.”

He also praised the concept of community policing which is functional in 16 areas of Karachi including Bahadurabad, PECHS Block 6, Korangi, Tibet Centre and Liaquatabad.

“Criminal activity is not possible without local support and through community police, we can eliminate local support,” he explained. The CPLC provides financial assistance to such schemes and the community police office not only looks into the law and order situation but also civic issues faced by the residents.

In response to a question regarding the accessibility of the CPLC office to the general public, Chinoy welcomed the students to visit the committee’s office at the Governor House in Karachi. “Just show your original CNIC at gate number 4 of the Governor House and you can come to the CPLC office,” he said. “You will find it more difficult to enter a police station than the Governor House,” he added wryly.

Speaking about the committee’s history and success over the years, Chinoy explained that the CPLC was established in the year 1990, with the blessing of the then Governor, Fakhruddin G Ebrahim. “Since then, we have brought about an information technology revolution in law enforcement,” he said. “We have uploaded FIRs online since the year 1987. We have a database of 3.5 million vehicles, a record of 300,000 prisoners, who have gone in and out of jail, a database of 900,000 stolen mobile phones, out of which 45,000 have been returned.”

Published in The Express Tribune, November 12^th, 2014.