BY sending IGP A.D. Khowaja on ‘forced’ leave, the PPP-led Sindh government has signalled it is going to be business as usual in the province. Nothing, certainly not a police official considered more upright than most, is to be allowed to stand in the way of how it wishes to rule the province. Murmurs about the PPP leadership’s increasing displeasure with Mr Khowaja, who was posted IGP on March 12 by the federal government, had been growing louder of late. However, with the centre, possibly under pressure from the security establishment, unable to accede to the provincial dispensation’s request to withdraw Mr Khowaja, plan B has been set in motion. This enables the PPP government to appoint a police official of its own choosing — in this instance Additional IG Karachi Mushtaq Mahar — as acting IG Sindh. The move, only days before the expected arrival of PPP co-chairperson Asif Zardari from self-exile, has been denounced by a group of 35 retired IGs. They have issued a statement saying the IG has been “forced to leave his job for not kowtowing to the illegitimate wishes of some very influential persons”.

This was an opportunity for the new Sindh chief minister Murad Ali Shah, considered more clean and competent than others in the provincial dispensation, to demonstrate his independence and put his stamp of authority on matters of government. Unfortunately, to the continued detriment of Sindh’s hapless residents, he has failed to rise to the occasion. A politicised police force is a corrupt and compromised police force that abets and profits from criminal wrongdoing by state functionaries and political heavyweights. Recruitment on merit is therefore of critical importance in meeting the objectives of effective law enforcement, and Mr Khowaja had taken steps to make it a more transparent process, one of the reasons for which he has been shown the door by the provincial government. It is telling that the previous IG Sindh, Ghulam Haider Jamali — after having spent 20 months in the post — was removed by the Supreme Court for, among other reasons, making thousands of illegal appointments. There is also the matter of the PPP government wanting to reinstate SSP Malir, against whom the IG Sindh had instituted an inquiry and who is known as an ‘encounter specialist’, to his previous post. It is extremely unfortunate that once again a capable officer has been sacrificed to the self-interest and personal vendettas of the political elite.

Published in Dawn, December 21st, 2016