Amid spike in Karachi street crimes, 85 police mobiles seized by officials

• At least 85 police mobiles have been confiscated by Garden Police Headquarters.
• The mobiles were summoned last Sunday evening for maintenance. 
• Once all cars were submitted the vehicles were confiscated.

KARACHI: Despite an increase in street crimes in Karachi, several vehicles of the city's police stations have been seized, whereas petrol supply to them has also been closed for a month.

While street crimes and other criminal offences are on the rise in Karachi, at least 85 police mobiles have been confiscated by the Garden Police Headquarters under a check and balance system used for the station house officers (SHOs) of Karachi.

Police officials say that there is a discrepancy between the running of police mobiles and the petrol withdrawn from fuel cards during July 2022.

Police sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that the police vehicles have been installed with trackers to compare the running of the cars and the petrol withdrawn. As per the tracker readings if the car is only run for 100 kilometres, then the officers are questioned why excess fuel was taken out from the cards.

Sources said that the 85 vehicles of police stations and officers were summoned last Sunday evening at the Garden Police Headquarters in the name of maintenance. However, once all the cars were submitted, they were confiscated and the drivers were sent home.

Officials, who requested not to be named, said that these mobiles do not have air-conditioners and officers use their private cars to appear before courts or attend daily meetings in extreme heat. They added that only petrol given to police stations is used in the budget.

According to police officers, the fuel cards of the budget are also closed for more than a week every month. In such a situation, the same police officers pay the expenses of the police stations by maintaining police mobile patrols from their own pockets.

The officer also shared that the top leadership of the law enforcement agency has not taken into account that due to the non-release of the budget for this quarter, the fuel of the Karachi police has been stopped since September 10. They added that despite this the police mobiles are being used by officials to perform their duties.

Soon after the news broke, a Karachi Police spokesperson clarified that the vehicles have been summoned for repairs due to technical and mechanical problems. He added that all the vehicles have been returned after the completion of repairs.