HYDERABAD, Dec 23: Sindh Home Minister Zulfiqar Mirza has said that 10,000 police constables will be recruited each year during the tenure of this government, 3,000 have already been recruited and the rest will be recruited before the end of the first year.

He said at a press conference at Makhdoom House in Hala that the provincial government planned to recruit 50,000 police constables in phases and arm them with sophisticated weapons and vehicles to strengthen the force and maintain law and order.

He said that the recruitments would be made purely on merit and even he himself was not in a position to get his recommended candidate appointed.

He said that in addition, reforms were also being made in the police department under which, salary of police constables was being increased and incentives for serving with dedication and honesty were being offered to the personnel to bring about behavioural changes and root out corruption.

The minister claimed that crime rate had decreased down to a considerable level during first year of this government and many notorious criminals had either been killed or brought to justice.

He said in answer to a question that action against land-grabbers of forest land would continue and added that as many as 1,500 acres had been pried free from them.

To another question, he said that no casualty had been reported during government’s action against squatters to get the private land vacated in Abdullah Shah Ghazi village and the process completed in a peaceful manner.

About allegations levelled against him by the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam, the minister said that on the one hand they had levelled baseless allegations and on the other they had staged a procession against their own candidate in the by-elections for NA-210.

Earlier, he said in his address to an open katchehry at the Makhdoom Shafiquzzaman auditorium that the Benazir Bhutto’s assassination was the murder of aspirations of millions of poor people.

He said that it was a conspiracy against Pakistan and its poor people. It was important to unearth actual perpetrators who were behind the assassination.

He said that the PPP was the party of the poor and it believed in people’s power and was struggling for public welfare.

Sindh Minister for Provincial Coordination Makhdoom Jamiluzaman stressed upon youths to follow the ideology of Benazir Bhutto.

MPA Syed Amir Ali Shah, Mir Fateh Talpur, member, Sindh council of PPP, and other party leaders also spoke on the occasion.

Later, the home minister received applications and issued orders on the spot.