MALIR: The Police in Bin Qasim say a sustained campaign over the past year against the theft of metal, cables and equipment from Pakistan Steel Mills has produced a large number of arrests and a marked fall in pilferage from the shuttered plant.
The operations have been led by Bin Qasim SHO Faisal Rafique, according to accounts from the area, with police reporting recoveries of stolen material and the breaking up of organised theft rings. Patrolling has been intensified across the Bin Qasim jurisdiction, including Pipri, targeting drug peddling and robbery alongside the Steel Mill thefts.
The Lahore Times has not been able to verify the number of arrests against police records. No station-level figures for FIRs registered, cases challaned or convictions secured have been released, and the account rests on statements made locally rather than on documentation from Malir district police.
Theft from Pakistan Steel Mills has become one of Karachi’s more persistent enforcement problems, with assets stripped from a facility that has not been in production for years.
In April, the Federal Investigation Agency said it had uncovered an organised theft network at the mills following a complaint from the Ministry of Industries and Production. Investigators found that machinery, cables, scrap and infrastructure had been removed over an extended period without gate passes, in an operation officials described as involving employees, security personnel, District Security Force staff and scrap dealers. The scale became apparent after the recovery of a 22-wheeler trailer carrying 36 tons of government material. FIA officials also said an attempt had been made to weaken the case by downgrading the original FIR to a “C class” classification, and that the alleged suppression had been folded into the investigation.
The enforcement record in the area is not one-directional. In May, ten people were arrested in Bin Qasim Town over the theft of valuable metals from the mills, and five of them were police personnel. Four were posted at Bin Qasim police station and one at the Madadgar 15 emergency line. Police named the arrested constables as Irfan Shah, Saadullah, Muneeb, Rehmat and Muhammad Ali, and said they had been working with a thief identified as Roshan Marri. About 30 kilogrammes of copper, three motorcycles and several mobile phones were recovered.
Earlier, in February, representatives of the Pakistan Steel Mills workers’ union publicly alleged that Bin Qasim police personnel were collaborating with theft rings and scrap dealers.
No allegation has been made against SHO Faisal Rafique in connection with any of this, and none of the reporting reviewed by The Lahore Times names him. It is not established from the available record whether the action against the five policemen was initiated at station level or ordered from the district or zonal tier. Police have not addressed the point publicly. The answer is material to any assessment of the crackdown described above.
Traders, residents and community figures in the area have spoken favourably of the policing effort, describing improvements in law and order. None of those offering this assessment agreed to be named, and their views have not been independently corroborated. Neither the Pakistan Steel Mills administration nor the workers’ union has commented on whether pilferage has measurably declined.
Several questions bear on the story and remain open: the verified number of FIRs, arrests and prosecutions arising from the campaign; the quantity and assessed value of material recovered; the status of departmental and criminal proceedings against the four Bin Qasim constables; and where police action sits in relation to the continuing FIA investigation.
The Lahore Times has sought comment from Malir district police and will report their response.
–Persons arrested are accused, not convicted. Allegations reported here are attributed to their sources and remain untested in court.
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