Sindh: 500 police officials posted at a senior police official's marriage ceremony

[Naveed Yaseen]

Karachi
The absence of hundreds of traffic policemen from their place of duty in the city on Tuesday evening can best be explained by the fact that they were pressed into duty at a marriage ceremony, against all rules of service regulations, on verbal instructions of their higher-ups. The marriage ceremony at the Beach Luxury Hotel was hosted by one of the top police officials of the province, who is also tipped to become the next police chief of Sindh.

This official, who is also chief of the Traffic Police, had booked three lawns at the Beach Luxury where over 1,000 guests were treated to a sumptious dinner and a live music band. Almost 300 traffic policemen in addition to about 200 regular policemen were posted at the hotel to facilitate the event despite the fact that this was a private affair and there was no justification for such an event being given such arrangements.

In fact, to facilitate guests of the DIG, policemen made the hotel management vacate the parking lot in front of the hotel. The whole exercise, which included stationing of bomb disposal squad, was done on the pretext that this was a “VVIP movement.” The whole hotel area was cleared of “unwanted persons” - most of whom were guests at the hotel or had come to visit one of its restaurants.

Millions have been spent on the marraige ceremony, say insiders, but no one is asking who is footing the bill. The people who were supposed to be asking the uncomfortable questions were themselves guests at the event. The guest list included the who’s who of the city’s law-enforcement apparatus. Police chiefs, intelligence chiefs, anti-corruptions chief of the provincial apparatus were all in attendance at the event where there was live screening of the proceedings for the enjoyment of the guests.

Almost all the police command was also in attendance - if not on duty then as guests. This correspondent counted at least 50 police mobiles standing outside the hotel venue. From the top to the SHO level, almost all were invited in what some guests described as an event that no other police official has been able to put up till now.

When contacted, the hotel management refused to comment on the event or the amount spent on food and entertainment.

However, privately a hotel employee said that it was “unusual” to see three full sized lawns being used for one wedding ceremony. “These are not small lawns. One lawn is enough for one big wedding. A lot of money had been spent on the event,” said one employee.

Another employee, who begged anonymity, said that one of the reasons why the event was at such a large scale is because massive discounts have been extracted from the hotel management. This claim, however, could not be confirmed independently.

The News tried to contact the said police official on his mobile phone till late on Tuesday night but he was unavailable for comment.

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