• Says police couldn’t win fight against crime without public support
• Observes repeat offenders, drug addicts make policing difficult in Karachi

KARACHI: Inspector General of Police Ghulam Nabi Memon on Saturday acknowledged that incidents of street crime in Karachi and kidnapping for ransom cases in the riverine area of Sindh had created a “perception” that the law enforcement agency was failing to maintain law and order.

Speaking at a press conference here at the Central Police Office, the IGP said it was the police’s duty to fight against organised crimes, but they could achieve success only when the public would cooperate with them.

He said with so much population and presence of so many repeat offenders and drug addicts, street crimes had always remained a challenge for the police in Karachi.

Similarly, in upper Sindh, there was an issue of kidnapping for ransom in three-four districts, he added.

He conceded that these challenges had created a ‘perception’ that the police were failing.

The IGP claimed that the police were not only taking action against crime, but elements who were patronising criminals were also being taken to task. However, he added that these challenges were not limited to Sindh, only but all over the country.

‘Tenure posting’

Asked about frequent transfer/posting of Station House Officers, the IGP said if there were serious allegations of indiscipline, corruption and inefficiency, then the SHOs were removed by the SSPs concerned, but removing an SHO or any other officer “without any plausible reason is not appropriate”.

He said in a recent meeting with all officers of the Sindh police, the issue of transfer/posting of SHOs was on the agenda and it was discussed as to how many SHOs were removed within one month.

Mr Memon said all those SHOs who were removed without any ‘plausible reason’ had been restored to their positions across the Sindh province recently.

“We believe in the tenure posting of not only for SHOs but other senior officers as well.

“Tenure posting is the most important thing if the Sindh police or the Sindh govt wants to improve law and order situation,” suggested the provincial police chief.

Recruitment drive

The police chief said the ‘biggest’ recruitment drive in the history of the Sindh police was under way as up to 27,000 policemen would be recruited with 11,000 policemen almost completing the process of recruitment while the rest would be recruited in the second phase.

Most of these new recruits would be sent to police stations. “We are trying to divert more and more policemen towards police stations,” said the IGP.

He said that 3,000 policemen were being trained to deal with law and order situations in a better way.

“Required kits have been procured and next year, you will see that the Sindh police will have a properly trained crowd management unit to deal with law and order situations in a better way.”

The provincial police chief expressed his reservation over “weakening of thana (police station)” over the years and said that they wanted to reverse that.

“We are trying to strengthen thana with more human resources as well financial powers.”

Policemen who were at duty other than police station were being directed to police station and he would be getting reports from SSPs to this effect every week.

He said capacity of number of police stations was being increased with financial powers and human resources to deal with street crimes in Karachi and banditry in the katcha area.

Responding to a question, the provincial police chief said the inquiry against removed the DIG-Sukkur and SSP-Ghotki was still under way who had given statements against each other in the media.

Similarly, he said legal proceedings against suspended DIG Mirpurkhas and SSP Mirpurkhas were also under way.

Replying to another question about reported lodging of cases against journalists in Shikarpur and Kashmore districts, the IG said these were “illegal” things and appeared to be an outcome of some “misunderstanding”. He claimed that the issue had been resolved.

Home Minister Ziaul Hasan Lanjar was supposed to hold the press conference but IGP Memon informed the journalists that the minister could not attend it due to some urgency.

Counter Terrorism Department chief Additional IG Imran Yaqoob Minhas and DIG Asif Ejaz Shaikh were also present.

Published in Dawn, November 10th, 2024