A Karachi police station created to curb water theft is facing allegations of corruption after an RO plant owner accused the SHO of extortion, harassment and misuse of authority. The complainant says a false FIR was registered after he refused to pay a bribe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
KARACHI: A police station set up to tackle water theft in Karachi has itself come under allegations of corruption and misconduct, amid claims that officials are shielding people involved in illegal water-related activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The allegations centre on the Water Corporation police station, where Station House Officer Mazhar Iqbal Awan has been accused of extortion and misuse of authority by a reverse osmosis filtration plant owner in Gulshan-e-Iqbal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to the report, Waqas Malikk, who owns an RO filtration plant operating under a valid Sindh Food Authority licence since 2023, has filed a written complaint with the inspector general of Sindh and other senior police officials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In his application, Malik alleged that the SHO demanded bribes from him and continued to harass him. He said he had already applied to the Water Corporation for a sub-soil or bore water licence under the relevant 2024 regulations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Malik further claimed that after he refused to pay the alleged bribe, the SHO, along with certain Water Corporation officials, registered what he described as a false and baseless first information report against him on accusations of water theft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“According to the FIR, charges under Section 2\/39 were imposed, alleging illegal water theft operations,” he informed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The complainant argued that the legal provision cited in the case applies only where water is stolen through unlawful connections to Water Corporation supply lines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The case has drawn attention because the police station was established to curb water theft, but the complaint alleges that its powers were instead used against a business owner who says he was operating with a valid food authority licence and had already sought the required water-related permission under the applicable rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The report said the controversy has raised serious questions over the conduct of officials at the Water Corporation police station and the manner in which the FIR was registered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Malik\u2019s complaint, submitted to the province\u2019s top police authorities and other senior officials, accuses the SHO of extortion, harassment and abuse of office. He has also alleged collusion between the police officer and some Water Corporation personnel in the registration of the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The FIR, as cited in the report, invoked Section 2\/39 in relation to alleged illegal water theft activity. Malik, however, maintained that the section was not applicable to his case because, according to him, it pertains to theft carried out through illegal links to official Water Corporation supply lines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The matter emerged from Gulshan-e-Iqbal, where Malik\u2019s RO filtration plant has been operating since 2023 under a Sindh Food Authority licence. His complaint states that he had also moved to obtain a sub-soil or bore water licence under the 2024 regulations before the police case was lodged against him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
No further details were provided in the report regarding any response from the police station or the Water Corporation officials named in the complaint.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A Karachi police station created to curb water theft is facing allegations of corruption after an RO plant owner accused the SHO of extortion, harassment and misuse of authority. The complainant says a false FIR was registered after he refused to pay a bribe. KARACHI: A police station set up to tackle water theft in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7413,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-policy-governance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistanaffairs.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistanaffairs.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistanaffairs.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanaffairs.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanaffairs.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7412"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanaffairs.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7414,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanaffairs.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7412\/revisions\/7414"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanaffairs.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistanaffairs.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanaffairs.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanaffairs.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}