Modern surveillance cameras stolen on Sukkur-Multan motorway in Sindh

• Even roofs of police checkposts in the area found missing.
• Streetlights and other basic infrastructure are also missing.
• Motorway police using portable speed cameras to issue fines.

KARACHI: Advanced surveillance and speed cameras, along with solar panels, lights and poles installed along nearly 200 kilometres of the Sukkur-Multan motorway in Sindh, have been stolen by katcha (riverine) area dacoits, raising serious questions over the security situation and governance in the province.

The law-and-order situation is particularly worse in the katcha areas of Ghotki district, especially around the Jahan Khan forest, where dacoits have uprooted camera poles and removed solar installations.

Even the roofs of police checkposts in the area have been found missing. No signs of activity are visible at several of these posts, while lights, reflectors and other basic infrastructure are also missing.

The Sukkur-Multan motorway (M-5), a flagship federal project, is facing severe mismanagement in the province.

Streetlights across service areas along the motorway were also non-functional, and nearly 90% of recently installed solar reflectors were found damaged.

With surveillance cameras either stolen or out of order, motorway police have reverted to older enforcement methods, placing portable speed cameras along the roadside to issue fines.