HYDERABAD: Shikarpur SSP Dr Mohammad Rizwan Ahmed Khan is said to have been left in the lurch by the Sindh police hierarchy after his leaked report accused provincial Minister for Energy Imtiaz Ahmed Sheikh of being involved in vendetta against his political opponents and criminal activities.

SSP Rizwan Khan has alleged that Imtiaz Sheikh and his family members (including his son and brother) were involved in criminal activities.

Sindh police chief Dr Syed Kaleem Imam is himself fighting a lost war after the Sindh government surrendered his services to federal government under a process to get him removed as the inspector general of Sindh.

According to the report, Imtiaz Ahmed Sheikh uses his “criminal wing” against his political opponents to create fear in society. His men killed the son of his political opponent, Shah Nawaz Brohi, through his criminals and he has been threatening the opponents in the case they had lodged against him. Imtiaz Sheikh has un-satiable hunger for control over police. He has constantly been pressuring the SSP of the district for the posting of his loyal police personnel, who would then leak secret information to him. Many a raids failed due to the leakage of such information.

The report further says that Imtiaz Sheikh interferes in the posting/transfer of police personnel on key posts, such as SHOs, and continuously exerts pressure on the undersigned [the SSP] for the posting of police personnel for gaining their loyalty.

Minister says charges against him are ‘false, misleading propaganda’

The report carries screenshots of the demands made by Mr Sheikh through his mobile phone to the SSP.

The SSP observed that things took a twist with the registration of a criminal case against Sindh Minister for Environment and Information Nawab Taimur Talpur, who hails from Umerkot, and the sitting Umerkot SSP, Aijaz Sheikh. “And this case proved to be last straw on camel’s back”, he added.

The case against Nawab Taimur Talpur and SSP Aijaz Sheikh was lodged by the secretary of Haleem Adil Sheikh, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s parliamentary party leader in the Sindh Assembly following an alleged attack on him and his caravan in Umerkot on Oct 31, 2019. Haleem Sheikh was visiting Mirpurkhas and Umerkot to offer his condolences to the bereaved family of Tezgam tragedy victims.

Quoting his senior, the SSP pointed out that when the Sindh government decided to have IGP Kaleem Imam replaced, the federal government had agreed to it only to have second thoughts shortly afterwards.

Mr Talpur and SSP Sheikh were directly named by the secretary, Lal Mohammad, in the FIR which was registered under an order of the sessions court concerned.

Haleem Sheikh says: “Prior to it [the FIR], I was booked in an FIR registered by police”. He has been pursuing his case since then and also used office of the Sindh governor, who wrote to the Mirpurkhas DIG, Saqib Ismail, against alleged high-handedness of SSP Aijaz Sheikh.

The establishment division on Dec 9, 2019 sought services of Aijaz Sheikh but Sindh government did not surrender him and on Dec 10, 2019 it requested that he be allowed to continue, said Haleem Sheikh.

SSP Sheikh was inducted directly in the Sindh police in mid 1990s and then he was absorbed in the Police Service of Pakistan (PSP) cadre. The case against him is to be investigated by some other police officer for which DIG Saqib Ismail Memon has written to Additional IG Dr Waliullah Dal and is awaiting a decision.

SSP Rizwan Khan was first removed from Shikarpur in a similar situation and according to sources close to him, he was transferred by Imtiaz Sheikh.

Published in Dawn, January 17th, 2020