HYDERABAD: Sindh Inspector General of Police (IGP) Dr Syed Kaleem Imam has said that his department has ensured decentralisation with the creation of posts of additional IGs (AIGs) for the Sukkur and Hyderabad regions. According to him, Sindh police has good working relationship with the provincial government.

The IGP was speaking to reporters at the office of Hyderabad AIG Ghulam Sarwar Jamali on Saturday. Mirpurkhas DIG Saqib Ismail, Hyderabad DIG Naeem Shaikh and SSP Sarfaraz Nawaz Shaikh were also present.

He said the Sindh police would implement the proposed police order and comply with it once it was enacted into law. “The assembly enacts laws and police follow them,” he said, adding that the police were working under subordination of provincial government. He said he was making his best efforts to improve policing.

“Sindh Police has put forward its proposals and hopes that better legislations will be ensured. Transfers/posting of SHOs is primarily domain of SSP and this will be ensured,” he said.

‘Govt, police maintaining good working relationship’

IGP Imam said that service delivery needed to be improved and this was being focused. He said that police worked round the clock and often faced difficulties. He pointed out that the Sindh police had rendered tremendous sacrifices.

In reply to a question, he said development works at 630 police stations were being carried out. Complaint cells to deal with issues relating to Section 22-A of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) had been set up.

Dr Imam said that now highway patrolling was being focussed by the police. He appreciated performance of the Motorway Police along the Indus Highway also working of the women protection cell.

He said action was taken against around 500 people for filing false applications.

He said 10,000 cameras were going to be installed in Karachi under the Safe City project. This would be replicated in Hyderabad. He said 2,200 cameras had already been installed in Karachi, adding that the Safe City project would be completed by the next year. He added that after Karachi, ‘mini safe city’ projects would be evolved for Hyderabad, Larkana and Sukkur. He pointed out that big cities in the world had such projects.

The IGP also stated that an anti-street crime cell would be set up in Karachi considering resurging mugging cases. He said that the Karachi police had responded to such cases in an effective manner. “Mugging is an issue in major cities of the world like Mumbai, Delhi and London; this issue can be tackled through safe city projects.”

The provincial police chief said that traffic regulation in Hyderabad was being improved.

In reply to a question, he said the concept of public safety commission was good as public representatives would be part of it. He said the concept provided evolving of ‘annual policing plan’ and this should be in the context that even police could approach the commission to get their grievances addressed.

The IGP said that a system was being put in place to ensure that all officers worked within their domain.

Regarding intelligence and terrorists’ activities in the province, he said the Sindh police had received 77 terror alerts and 76 of the threats were averted. Only one blast, in Kashmore, was reported and even in this incident, the suspect was arrested.

Published in Dawn, May 26th, 2019