BY Faith Kaitano
A call has gone out to President Dr. Lazarus Chakwera to tame former Police IG who is using the fiscal police to terrorize bonafide Malawians of Indian origin doing legitimate business in Malawi and contributing to the day-to-day running of government affairs through paying taxes.
Police recently unleashed fiscal police to harass Shiraz Karim, an investor in the cooking oil manufacturing industry, through unwarranted mid night raid, purportedly in search of foreign currency at his home in Blantyre.
Barely a day after exposing the so-called SEARCH REPORT, which attracted public backlash from upright and well-meaning Malawians who threw their weight behind the KUKOMA boss, the Fiscal Police through head of Criminal Investigations Department (CID) at Chichiri, Mr. Kamisa has given back the 20 pounds and the US$ 300 they illegally took from Shiraz’s house.
This follows the unconditional release of the business magnet who provides direct and indirect employment to over a thousand Malawians.
Meanwhile, sources within the Malawi police Service are heaping the blame on the leadership vacuum at Area 30 that has provided a fertile ground for a corpse to be turning in its grave and remote controlling the MPS.
We have further established that before handing over the money, the police wanted Shiraz Karim to sign a document, however, there was a heated debate among the officers as to why someone who was released unconditionally, should be called from wherever he was to sign as if he was given police bail. After protracted debate, a decision was made to give back the money. This confirms fears that Shiraz Karim’s case warrants false imprisonment.
The unfortunate events that have happened to the Karim family have reminded Malawians of the old Malawi Congress Party (MCP) regime that was associated with terror, death and darkness where detention without trial was the order of the day. In 1975 the MCP led government under the dictator Kamuzu Banda, made a decree that forced all the Indians to move from wherever they were prying their trade to the cities of Blantyre and Lilongwe.
As it stands now, Shiraz Karim can successfully sue the Malawi Police for false imprisonment and in the end claim billions of the taxpayers money in compensation.
However, on trade and investment front, the conduct of Kainja’s blue eyed men and women in the Malawi police are scaring away potential and existing investors thereby making Malawi a very unattractive investment destination.
The development is defeating the Warm Heart of Africa spirit and at the same time threatening the very efforts to resuscitate the economy which is now on its death bed.
The sooner President Chakwera realized that the private sector is the engine that drives the economy the better and the first thing to do is to tame the corrupt former IG Kainja to take his hands off the police!
