KARACHI: The appointment of a new inspector general of Sindh police is likely to strain ties between the province and the Centre, it emerged on Friday.

The provincial government on Thursday surrendered the services of incumbent IG Iqbal Mehmood to the federal government reportedly over differences partly arising out of a procurement deal of armoured personnel carriers worth around Rs8 billions from Serbia.

On Friday, both stakeholders rejected each other’s nominees for the post, exposing deep a fissure between the centre and the province.

Sources told Dawn said that the Centre had sent three names for the post of the police chief — Mir Zubair, former CCPO of Quetta; Khan Beg, former IG of Punjab police; and Rafiq Butt posted in the National Police Foundation — for consideration.

Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon on Friday told the media that Sindh had rejected the Centre’s list of candidates for the post of IG of Sindh police.

“We would not accept the federal government’s candidates for the police chief post,” he was quoted as saying. “The centre should stop trying to impose its decisions on Sindh,” declared the provincial minister.

The sources said that the Sindh government had also recommended the name of former IG of police Fayyaz Leghari for the post of Sindh police IG for consideration to the federal government, which the Centre rejected.

They added that the Centre had advised the province to send a list of at least three candidates for the slot as per past practice.

Meanwhile, in a related development, the Sindh government on Friday curtailed powers of the IG in terms of appointment of SPs and SSPs across the province.

Sources privy to these developments told Dawn that after promulgation of the Police Order in 2002, the IG police or PPO tended to exercise powers for appointment of police officers up to grade 20 (DIG rank).

However, after abrogation of the Police Order, the province decided to take back the powers of appointment of police officers from police in 2011.

This order was not implemented as the IG police continued to appoint SPs and SSPs. However on Friday, the government decided that from now on the chief secretary would appoint grade 18 and 19 police officers.

A senior police officer, who wished not to be named, said that apart from perceived political pressure, assertiveness of district management group officers was emerging as another challenge for the police authorities.

Published in Dawn, July 5th, 2014