August 06, 2008	Wednesday	Sha’aban 3, 1429

KARACHI, Aug 5: An exercise of holding written tests and interviews to evaluate performance of police officers for the posting of station house officers, introduced by the former provincial police officer to allow merit to become a supreme consideration in the police department, has been put aside by the present authorities, Dawn has reliably learnt.

Plans to conduct tests followed by interviews were aimed at ensuring merit-based posting of an SHO, a post considered extremely crucial for better policing. However, the evaluation process never got completed and was abandoned halfway even before the appointment of Dr Shoaib Suddle, the former police chief, as director-general of the intelligence bureau.

The exercise was conducted smoothly up to the stage of holding written tests at different police headquarters in May 2008. After the tests, a committee comprising DIG South Iqbal Mehmood as chairman, DIG Investigation Ghulam Qadir Thebo, DIG East A.D. Khawaja and DIG West Abdul Aleem Jafery as its members was constituted to interview the successful police officers. The committee was instructed to submit a report carrying its recommendations by May 26, 2008.

However, the process was stalled because the interviews of the successful candidates were not conducted and the committee never submitted its recommendations, well-placed sources confirmed.

“The committee did not carry out its assigned task for obvious reasons,” remarked a senior police officer requesting anonymity. Actually it was the political pressure that made the police high-ups to abort the process, the officer observed.

Politicians were already unhappy with the former PPO for not acceding to their recommendations. It is worth mentioning here that a police officer was dismissed from service as he kept trying to influence the former PPO for posting through different politicians. Withstanding political pressure, Dr Shoaib Suddle issued the officer’s dismissal orders on the recommendation of Sindh Assembly Speaker Nisar A. Khuhro.

Result sheet

One hundred and thirty-four police officers appeared in the written test held on May 16, 2008. Of them, 59 flunked the tests. The rest of the candidates, who obtained 40 and above marks, were declared eligible for interviews. However, the interviews were never conducted and a sizable number of the candidates who failed to do well in the test still enjoy postings at different police stations.

A copy of the result sheet obtained by Dawn shows that Jamshed Quarters SHO Syed Ali Raza obtained 26 marks out of 100 and yet he holds the post. Similarly, Defence SHO Farooq Satti secured 26 marks and was holding the post till recently. Baharuddin Baber, who secured 37 marks in the written test, still holds the post of SHO Darakhshan police station. Similarly, Tahmoria SHO Chaudhry Altaf Husain obtained 38 marks, Rizvia SHO Tariq Islam Khan obtained 39 marks, Gulbahar SHO Fasihuddin secured 25 marks, Super Market SHO Irshad Imam Abidi 35 marks, Memon Goth SIO Saleemullah Khalid 33 marks, Jackson SIO Muneer Ahmed 24 marks, Clifton SIO Chaudhry Muhammad Afzal 39, Preedy SIO Jafar Khan Baloch 35 marks, Mauripur SHO Azam Raza secured 33 marks, Mochko SIO Khan Muhammad 22 marks, Sir Syed SHO Ali Anwar Shah 20 marks.

It may be mentioned here that the paper carried questions about daily policing matters and rules and regulations.

Sources close to the Central Police Office said that the SHOs who were said to be close or believed to have links with the former provincial government were removed from their posts. Besides, 16 SHOs have recently been posted in different police stations across the city.