KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah said on Thursday that recruitments in the police department were made purely on merit. He said the personnel were provided training for their capacity building, were equipped with best arms and ammunition and their salary and compensation structure had been enhanced. That, he said, made our police force one of the best in Pakistan, which could be compared with any police force in the world in the sense that they bravely fought against terrorists, assassins and extortionists.

The chief minister stated this while speaking at the passing-out parade of the 40th batch of police, comprising 760 personnel, at the Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Elite Police Training Centre on Thursday.

Recalling sacrifices of personnel of the law enforcement agencies in meeting the challenge of terrorism, the CM said: “Peace has not returned here easily but it has taken lives of our police, Rangers and Pak Army personnel. I salute the martyrs and pay rich tribute to the families of shuhada.”

148 women among 760 police recruits pass out at ceremony

The chief minister said that the morale of the Sindh police was down when the PPP government took over in 2008. “The reasons behind the low morale was targeted killing of policemen who had participated in the operation clean-up in Karachi, their salary structure was lower than the police forces of other provinces, there was no solid compensation system for shuhada, the families of shuhada had no government patronage,” he said, adding that the provincial government had adopted a holistic approach to address the issue.

Mr Shah said that recruitments in the police department were made purely on merit, best training courses for their capacity building were designed, their salary structure was enhanced and made at par with the salaries of police in other provinces, compensation for shuhada was enhanced, their health and educational services were improved and they were equipped with best arms and ammunition.

“Today our police force is the best in Pakistan and could be compared with any police force in the world,” he said.

“Sindh police force is the best in the world in the sense that it has fought bravely against terrorists, target killers, extortionists in the city and 2,200 of them embraced shahadat,” he said. “I salute them and their families. We have not left the families of shuhada alone; [we] are giving them salaries regularly apart from paying them compensation.”

The chief minister said he hoped that the passing-out batch of 760 policemen, including 148 women, would be the best addition to the police force. “I have witnessed their abilities they demonstrated in their passing-out programme — they are superb and well-trained and I am sure they would deliver in the field,” he said.

“This training centre was established during the ’90s and so far it has produced a force of 50,000 policemen,” he said and vowed to strengthen it further with an auditorium and other required facilities. He also said that he would consider the proposal of establishing a police cadet college. Mr Shah said that he was favourably considering the proposal for upgrading constables from BPS-5 to 7, head constables from BPS-7 to 9 and ASIs from BSP-7 to 11.

The passing-out policemen demonstrated their training skills and abilities to curb crime and handle sensitive situations. They gave a guard of honour to the chief minister when he arrived at the centre.

The chief minister distributed certificates, medals and awards to the position holders of the training course.

Commandant of the training centre Tanveer Odho also spoke.

The ceremony was also attended by IG Dr Kaleem Imam, AIG Dr Aftab Pathan and other relevant police officers.

Published in Dawn, October 19th, 2018