Sindh Home Minister Ziaul Hassan Lanjar on Monday expressed disapproval over a petition filed by six Chinese nationals in the high court against police harassment and restrictions on their movement, saying the move was “against protocol”.
Xu Hui, Deng Huan and four other Chinese nationals filed a petition before the Sindh High Court through their lawyer Peer Rehman Mehsud and claimed that they, along with thousands of other Chinese nationals, arrived in Pakistan after completing all formalities. required legal requirements and invest a significant amount of money. money and resources in various companies and business sectors in Pakistan.
The petitioners said the Sindh police had engaged in “repeated acts of harassment” over the past six to seven months, including unjustified restriction on the movements of Chinese nationals in Karachi and Sindh, particularly when they had also been subjected to unjustified detention. inside their residences under the pretext of “security issues” without any clear legal basis or specific incidents that would justify such actions.
The high court’s constitutional bench issued notices to the Ministry of External Affairs and other respondents over the matter last week, while the Sindh government ordered a probe into the allegations on Saturday.
Speaking to the media outside the Sindh Assembly today, Lanjar said: “Foreigners must follow the Foreigners Act. Chinese citizens should have followed the procedure as well. “The petition filed by Chinese citizens is not legally valid.”
He said the Chinese nationals should have taken up the matter through their consul general or foreign affairs office, adding that the petitioners were in Pakistan in their private capacity and did not have any foreign investment in the country.
“We have respect and honor for Chinese citizens. We provide you infallible security. But when someone does not follow the SOPs (standard operating procedures), the situation worsens,” he said, reiterating that the matter should have been taken up through the Chinese consulate.
“Police officers met with the Chinese consul general. “I will also meet the Chinese Consul General in this regard so that he can submit a political statement.”
Meanwhile, Dr Muhammad Farooq Ahmed, Deputy Inspector General of Special Protection Unit (SPU) of Police (DIG), said dawn.com that since the Karachi airport attack on Chinese nationals on October 6 last year, foreigners arriving at the airport were taken to their destinations, residences and projects as per the SOPs.
He said five flights used to arrive at the airport in a week, carrying between 20 and 60 Chinese nationals, adding that as per standard operating procedures, they were not taken to their destinations collectively.
DIG Ahmed said the Chinese personnel were transported after a gap of three to four hours in bullet-proof vehicles with a squad of police and also jammers.
He said unlike Chinese personnel working on projects not related to the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), those associated with CPEC projects were taken to their destinations by the authorities after a gap of six to 12 hours as per SOPs.
He said the safety of non-CPEC Chinese investors was also the responsibility of local investors, but some of them did not provide the mandatory bullet vehicles for travel, so the police tended to arrange such vehicles for their safety, as that foreigners would not be allowed to go. in private taxis.
Regarding any allegations of bribery, the SPU chief said that if such a complaint was received, the police officers concerned were reprimanded and suspended from duty.
DIG Ahmed said the police had shifted Chinese personnel from Thatta, Sukkur and Kotri to Karachi hospitals in cases of health emergencies.
He said there was a complaint against a policeman who had pelted stones at Chinese nationals while trying to prevent their free movement after two days of an attack on Chinese in the Site area, adding that action had already been taken against the individual.
The DIG further said that the police officer claimed that the foreigners had used “abusive language” against him.
DIG Ahmed said that some projects were sealed in Malir due to violation of security protocols, adding that he personally visited such projects in Malir and advised foreigners to at least raise the border walls of the projects.
He added that Chinese nationals working on non-CPEC projects were advised to take security concerns seriously given threats from sub-nationalists and militant groups; However, in one month alone, 41 SOP violations were committed by staff working on non-CPEC projects.
