KARACHI, April 23: Jehangir Mirza, who recently retired as Inspector-General of the Sindh police, has blamed excessive political interference into the departmental affairs for the deteriorating performance of the force.
“The police are being used as a tool of politicians and as the general elections draw near, the political setup wants to appoint officials so that they gain political mileage,” Mr Mirza told Dawn here on Monday.
Comparing the Punjab and Sindh police, Mr Mirza said that the Sindh police was a victim of political interference, adding that the Punjab police worked independently.
He said that the adviser to the Sindh chief minister on home affairs wanted to exercise the powers of DIGs and TPOs. Mr Mirza alleged that the adviser used the department officials as rubber stamps for issuing all the orders, adding that as an adviser he was not authorised to sign orders.
The former IGP said that apart from many other reasons, his resistance to surrender his authority was the main cause of his differences with the government.
Mr Mirza, who relinquished his charge on April 14, said: “An officer who is posted through political influence usually ignores the directives of his superiors. This not only adversely affects discipline in the police hierarchy but also causes a decline in police performance and upsurge in criminal activities.”
Referring to the removal of a DPO, he recalled that the DPO in the interior of the province had misbehaved with a minority MPA.
“Many other complaints were also pending against the DPO and on that basis I ordered his transfer. But the same DPO was reinstated to his post as the chief minister could not sustain the pressures from different quarters,” he revealed.
About the posting of six TPOs to bring down increasing criminal activities in Karachi some six months back, the former IG said: “The background of their postings was that we had told the prime minister in three successive meetings that the police were helpless in posting the TPOs due to political interference and the crime rate could not be controlled unless competent officers were posted. On the strict directives of the prime minister, we recommended some competent officers at a meeting with the home adviser and other government officials and the postings came into effect.”
He said as soon as he retired, some of those officers were transferred and the remaining ones might be removed in the near future. As far as the transfers of DIG Mohammad Akbar and Akhtar Memon were concerned, he said that their transfer orders were issued when he was in office.
“I had asked the Sindh governor and the chief minister to allow them to continue working at least even two weeks after my retirement as they could brief the new IG Sindh on departmental affairs,” he said, adding that they were removed an hour after his retirement.
About the purchase committee, he said that the head of the purchase committee was Additional IG Niaz Siddiqui and some competent officers who were its members. He appreciated the efforts of Mr Siddiqui for carrying out the matters in a transparent manner. However, he said a contractor who feared losing the contract went to the home adviser and he ordered some amendments to the process to make it more transparent.
“I told him that the process was already transparent. I warned him that his act will delay the process as the amount could not be released in June and the police officials could not get uniforms this year. My fear is about to come true,” he said and also defended the process of recruitment during his tenure which was also made controversial.
KARACHI, April 23: Jehangir Mirza, who recently retired as Inspector-General of the Sindh police, has blamed excessive political interference into the departmental affairs for the deteriorating performance of the force.
