Make way: Chief secretary told to submit list of barricaded roads in 15 days

SHC hears petition seeking removal of illegal barriers on main roads

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) has directed the provincial chief secretary to submit a comprehensive list of all the barricaded roads in the metropolis that cannot be used as public thoroughfares.

A division bench, headed by Justice Nadeem Akhtar, ordered the secretary to furnish these documents within 15 days or personally appear to answer the court's queries on February 24. These directives were issued on Tuesday during the hearing of a petition seeking the removal of unauthorised and illegal barriers from thoroughfares.

During Tuesday's hearing, home secretary Abdul Raheem Soomro, South DIG Abdul Khalique Shaikh and Additional DIG Mazhar Alvi were present. A provincial law officer informed the bench that the chief secretary was not feeling well to appear in court.

Earlier, the two judges had expressed their displeasure over the absence of the chief secretary, Sajjad Saleem Hotiana, who was specifically ordered at the last hearing to 'appear in person' to explain why the hurdles on public roads have not been removed despite repeated orders.

Tuesday's absence visibly irritated the bench members, who asked the officer to call the province's key bureaucrat in anyway, as he bore responsibility to implement the court's orders. However, commissioner Shoaib Siddiqui informed the judges that he was representing the chief secretary. He assured, on behalf of the secretary, that he will submit a comprehensive report and a list of all such roads in Karachi that are blocked due to barricades or barriers and are not being allowed as public thoroughfares.

After his assurance, the bench said the chief secretary does not need to be present at the next hearing. "However, in case the above are not filed within the stipulated period, the chief secretary shall have to be present before the court in person," the judges cautioned, before adjourning the hearing till February 24.

The petition was filed by Rana Faizul Hasan, a civil rights campaigner, who claimed that several roads in Karachi have been blocked by placing barriers on the streets. Armed people take positions at all entry and exit points of various neighbourhoods and they question those who try to enter, he claimed. The petitioner further submitted that 70 per cent of the link roads in Jamshed Town, Gulshan-e-Iqbal, North Nazimabad Town, New Karachi, Liaquatabad Town, Korangi Town, Landhi Town, Clifton and other areas of the city had been closed with barriers.

Hasan said that the law enforcement agencies had failed to perform their duties as there were clear directions from the Supreme Court to remove barriers and no-go areas in the city. The Supreme Court, he recalled, also held that no-go areas cannot be allowed in the country and nobody can be restrained from free access to public roads and areas, including private housing societies.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 5^th, 2015.