In a shocking revelation sources confirmed that the security equipment’s of Civic Center Karachi, including Hydraulic Speed Breaker, walkthrough gates, metal detectors, and wireless communication system are out of order.
Whereas sources informed that none of the security staff is trained for security purpose as the department has not renewed the contracts of Ex-Army Personals, more than 35 Ex-Army personals were performing their duty in past, some of them also filed a case in court for the renewal of their contracts.
Karachi City has recently faced a terror attack at Pakistan Stock Exchange, after the said attack Security of important buildings, are beefed-up but Civic Center security is still at risk and in case of any terror attack the security department of KDA cannot resist the terrorists due to the posting of untrained staff.
Moreover, the security department is also facing a shortage of employees as total 69 number of staff are working for the security of civic center in three shifts in which 22 to 25 staff is performing duty at a time which is insufficient, also there is reportedly only one female staff in the security department.
It was learned that Five Hydraulic speed breakers were fixed in the era of City District Government Karachi on 105 Million rupees, which had the capacity to block around 80 tons of Explosive vehicle is out of order due to no maintenance for a long time.
The Building of Civic Centre KDA was established in 1984-85 on the era of ZA Nizami the then Director-General of KDA, whereas it is one of the Shock Proof Building in Karachi City, it consisted of 10 floors with around 250 rooms and the total area is about 4,70,000 Square Yards.
The civic center is mainly a property of KDA and its security, maintenance and renovation is also the responsibility of the said department.
In civic center reportedly there are seven external and five internal gates however offices of Karachi Development Authority-KDA, Sindh Building Control Authority- SBCA, Excise & Taxation Department, K-Electric, House Building Finance Corporation-HBFC, NIT including Habib Bank, National Bank of Pakistan Branches and other departments offices are also located in its jurisdiction.
KDA Security Department which has the responsibility to secure civic center, From a long period its employees are deprived of getting overtime or late sitting allowance as they perform their duties even in the public holidays round a clock and also performed their duty during COVID-19 lockdown.
Sources added that around 69 employees are working in three shifts in KDA Security department, who have not get uniform from the last four years and their two-month salary is also due.
A Security Expert said the number of KDA Security department employees are insufficient to control the whole area, it should have to increase.
Moreover, the source stated that there is a capacity of 300 to 330 car parking in the civic center but only in KDA an estimated 4500 employees, however as per traffic engineering bureau survey report around forty thousand peoples including office staff and visitors visit this place on a daily basis.
However, the Office of Command & Control Centre where the law enforcement agencies monitor 4500 to 5000 cameras which fixed in different parts of the city also present in the building.
Whereas there is no security supervisor in Shift “A” as the present supervisor is ill and not attending the office.
