Police Getting Overly Aggressive Against Phone Retailers In Sindh

Government has been announcing strict laws and pushing to prevent the illegal sales of mobile phone SIMs all over the country. However, as has been the case in the past the retailers didn’t take the government warnings very seriously and thought that it was just another phase that'll be over in no time. That was not the case, especially for phone retailers who were raided by Sindh police in recent days.

The police have now been commanded not to arrest the retailers for the matter of illegal sales of mobile phone SIMs. The order for not arresting and harassing the retailers was released due to overly aggressive behavior from the police towards the retailers. The regulator is not going back on the prevention of sales of unregistered SIMs but the police have been asked to remain lenient and within ethical boundaries while catching the retailers doing the illegal business.

The matter got the highlight when several mobile phone retailers from all over the province got together to file a petition in the Sindh High Court against the issue of unjustified arrests by the police. The retailers requested in the petition to get restraining orders so they could stop the police from being violent and hostile against them.

Many retailers also complained that they were arrested or mistreated even after meeting all the requirements of selling legal SIMs i.e. obtaining ID information before handing over the SIM. Many retailers fumed on the fact that they were being repeatedly visited by the police and treated badly. Many employees working for the retailers had been arrested for no justified reasons according to the retailers filing the petition.

On the more serious side of the matter the retailers reported that police have been physically torturing the arrested workers. Not so surprising but it needs mentioning that many workers had to come out of the jail by bribing the police.

Is police being so responsible that it doesn’t want to be lenient for anyone or has it become an opportunity for the corrupt individuals in the police to arrest people without justification to bag some bribe is not understood. However, the retailers must also get serious about the prevention of sales of unregistered SIMs.