Islamabad [Pakistan]May 28 (ANI): With Pakistan’s Sindh provincial government announcing strict lockdown measures following the third wave of COVID-19, restrictions in Karachi have been determined to become a way for law enforcement officials to make money.
According to the Daily Times, police in several suburbs have worked with local authorities to allow local businesses to stay open late and break state restrictions.
Police and local authorities have reportedly set an hourly rate to keep business running after 6 p.m. and shopkeepers have alleged police forced them to adhere to the rates.
In addition, law enforcement officials willingly leave the movement of people unabated and beat up journalists who cover the Sindh government’s restrictions to deter them from exposing the apparent violations of rules and regulations.
Speaking to the Daily Times, the city’s electronic market association, All Karachi Chairman Tajir Ittehad, Atiq Mir, said the provincial government had immensely disrupted business in the metropolis by banning police and other departments in the name of enforcing COVID I have imposed -19 restrictions on coins.
He said the Sindh government had taken businessmen and citizens hostage and turned Karachi into a police state.
Meanwhile, the lawmakers of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement in Pakistan (MQM-P) in the Sindh Assembly strongly condemned the conversion of Karachi into a police state, saying that the Sindh government is violating citizens’ self-esteem and their rights.
Pak Sarzameen party leader Syed Mustafa Kamal also alleged that government officials abused and blackmailed traders in the name of the lockdown and that the police picked them up, detained and released them after extorting millions of rupees. reported Daily Times.
A prominent journalist on social media noted that if the Sindh COVID-19 lockdown were extended for another six months, the police could repay all of Pakistan’s debts.
As COVID-19 cases in Pakistan rise rapidly, the cumulative number of infections in the country surpassed the 900,000 mark on Sunday. (ANI)
