• Centre appoints Ghulam Nabi Memon as IGP again on provincial govt’s request
• Street crime in Karachi, dacoit activities in riverine area termed biggest challenges for new IGP

KARACHI: The ruling Pakistan Peoples Party government in the province managed to get an officer of its choice after the federal government posted Ghulam Nabi Memon, a BS-21 officer, as the new inspector general of Sindh police, replacing outgoing IGP Riffat Mukhtar on Sunday.

Mr Memon has been appointed Sindh IG for the second time as he was first given the same assignment in 2022 but was removed from the post before completing the three-year period by the caretaker government as part of a policy of the Election Commission of Pakistan in August last year.

“With the approval of the federal government, Mr Ghulam Nabi Memon, a BS-21 officer of Police Service of Pakistan, presently serving as Executive Director, State Life Insurance Corporation, under Commerce Division, is transferred and posted as Provincial Police Officer (PPO), Govt of Sindh, under Section 10 of the Civil Servants Act, 1973, with immediate effect and until further orders,” reads a notification issued by Establishment Division on Sunday.

Instead of sending a three-officer panel, sources said, the PPP-led Sindh government had on March 4 recommended to the federal government only Mr Memon’s name to be posted as the new IGP.

After waiting for two weeks, the provincial government had fired its first salvo against the federal government when Sindh Home Minister Ziaul Hasan Lanjar had issued a statement and said that the delay in the appointment of the new IGP was in violation of the agreement between the PPP and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz.

The sources said that the PML-N tried to pacify its ally in the Centre through the latest appointment.

‘Burden of expectations’

Mr Memon is considered as a well-reputed officer in the force.

At a time when street crime in Karachi and the “bandit rule” in riverine areas have become a big challenge for the police to deal with, a former Sindh police chief opined that the expectation of force and public would be very high and he would have to work hard to meet the challenge.

“Ghulam Nabi Memon is an officer with highest integrity, competency and professionalism. He is capable to lead the police as per people’s expectations,” said former IGP-Motorway police Sultan Ali Khowaja.

Former IGP-Sindh A.D. Khowaja told Dawn that Mr Memon was a very experienced professional and “his choice as IGP raises hope that order would be restored and Sindh police can rise to the challenges of serious law and order in upper Sindh and Karachi”.

Mr Memon had a vast experience in policing in the country. He had also served at the UN Mission in Bosnia and at Pakistan’s High Commission in the United Kingdom.

Prior to his first posting as IGP in 2022, he had served as Karachi police chief twice between 2019 and 2022 and also headed Special Branch.

He had joined the police force in early 1990s and served in different districts of Punjab and Sindh.

He had also served in the Intelligence Bureau as its Karachi director between 2006 and 2008 and then as the IB’s provincial head between 2011 and 2016.

He is also a recipient of Sitara-i-Shujahat and Tamgha-i-Imtiaz.

Published in Dawn, March 25th, 2024