Karachi businesses, restaurants to close at 8pm on New Year's Eve

KARACHI, DEC 31 - The Karachi commissioner has directed officials to ensure that all businesses and restaurants in the city are closed down by 8pm on New Year's Eve (today).

In a notification dated Oct 30 and addressed to all the deputy commissioners, the office of the Karachi commissioner said that "owing to security reasons and on the request of the police department [...] please ensure the closure of all restaurants and business places at 8pm on the eve of New Year 2021".

In an earlier notification from the same day, the office of the Karachi commissioner had said all shops and restaurants will be close by 5pm on New Year's Eve, however, later the time for closure was extended by three hours.

During a meeting of all deputy commissioners and senior police and government officials yesterday, it was decided that standard operating procedures (SOPs) for curbing the spread of the coronavirus would be "implemented in letter and spirit".

"Police and other agencies shall be deployed at sensitive points to control the mob that might come up to celebrate the event at Seaview," the notification said.

"Ambulances and fire brigades shall be stationed at police camps that will be established at sensitive points by the police to control the law and order situation and to manage the crowd," it added.

The participants of the meeting also decided to declare an emergency at all hospitals and to make all CCTV cameras at Seaview functional to "monitor the activities".

In another notification, Karachi Commissioner Navid Ahmed Shaikh also imposed a complete ban on aerial firing on New Year's Eve.

"The deputy commissioners and assistant commissioners of Karachi division are hereby authorised to take action against violators with the concerned SSPs and get them booked under Section 188 of the Code of Criminal Procedure [...] for violating Section 144 of the CrPc," the notification reads.

Last week, the city police chief had said that people resorting to jubilant/aerial firing on New Year’s Eve would be booked under charges of attempted murder.

“If any person [is] hurt due to the firing, it would be construed that it was not aerial firing but the person was directly involved in injuring the victim,” Karachi police chief Ghulam Nabi Memon had said.

According to police data, one person was killed while several others were hurt in aerial firing on New Year’s Eve 2017 while 19 persons including women suffered bullet wounds in 2018.

Similarly, 19 persons including women and children received bullet injuries in 2019 while in 2020, 14 persons suffered injuries.

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COURTESY DAWN NEWS

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