KARACHI, Sept 7 Bedevilled by threats to their personal security - real or perceived - various individuals have engaged a large number of police personnel as their security guards at the taxpayers' expense, compromising the security of the common man.

Following an exhaustive exercise carried out during the brief tenure of former provincial police officer Dr Shoaib Suddle, the Karachi police withdrew around 1,500 police guards, reducing the number of policemen on such duties from 6,000 to 4,500, sources in the police department told Dawn. The Karachi police have a sanctioned strength of 29,000.

Dr Suddle had tasked the then city police chief to head the exercise and withdraw the police personnel performing guard duties with different personalities.

Similarly, a separate 'security headquarters' was established with a sanctioned strength of 4,995 personnel. All the policemen on guard duties have been transferred to the security headquarters. The formation of a separate headquarters was necessitated by the fact that a single person used to take policemen for guard duties from different places, including his area police station and through the SP security office, which led to duplication, a senior police officer said. “Now there is at least a consolidated number at one place,” he added.

Official statistics seen by Dawn show that 482 police personnel are performing security duties with the Sindh cabinet ministers and advisers.

Against the entitlement of two police guards, each member of the Sindh cabinet has at least four to five guards, whereas in Punjab, according to the entitlement a minister is not allowed more than two police guards.

For the judiciary there are 540 policemen performing guard duties. For different consulates, except the US consulate, located in the city, there are 370 police guards. The United States consulate in Karachi has a staggering figure of 264 police guards. For government offices 311 policemen and government officers 163 guards, and over 1,000 policemen are associated with different police officers.

The data shows that Agha Siraj Durrani, the Minister for Local Bodies, enjoys the security of 13 police guards, Abdul Haq Bhurt, provincial Minister for Livestock, has eight police guards. Provincial Minister for Auqaf Abdul Haseeb has 10 police personnel while provincial Minister for Housing Abdul Jalil Memon has 11.

Minister for Agriculture Ali Nawaz Shah is satisfied with only one police guard.

Minister for Low-cost Housing Ali Mardan Shah has six police guards, provincial Minister for Transport Akhtar Husain Jadoon has nine, Minister for Narcotics Control Agha Taimour Khan has eight, provincial Minister for Wildlife Dr Daya Ram Essarani has nine, Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs Ayaz Soomro has 10 and Labour Minister Ameer Nawab has seven police guards.

Minister for Population Jam Mehtab Husain Dahar has four police guards while member of the National Assembly Aftab Shaban Mirani has one police guard at his Karachi residence.

Federal Law Minister Farooq H. Naek has three policemen at his Karachi residence, Dr Sagheer Ahmed, provincial Health Minister, has seven police guards, Dr Mohan Lal, Minister for Minority Affairs, has eight and Dr Mohammad Ali Shah, Minister for Sports, has 16 policemen performing guard duty.

Minister for Information Technology Mohammad Raza Haroon has 10 police guards, provincial Minister for Industries and Commerce Rauf Siddiqui has 12, MPA Adil Siddiqui has 31 police guards, Khalid Bin Wilayat has 12 while Minister for Irrigation and Power Jam Saifullah Dharejo has seven policemen on his guard duty.

Federal Minister for Labour Khursheed Shah has three police guards at his Karachi residence, whereas Finance Minister Naveed Qamar has four police guards at his Karachi residence, the data shows.

Provincial Minister for Coordination Makhdoom Jameel-uz-Zaman has five police guards, Minister for Excise and Taxation Mukesh Kumar Chawla has four police guards, Minister for Food Mir Nadir Ali Khan Magsi has three, and the Minister for Works and Services, Manzoor Wassan, has 11 police guards.

Minister for Culture and Tourism Sassui Palejo has six police guards, Minister for Development Tauqeer Fatima Bhutto has 11, Nargis N.D. Khan, Minister for Social Welfare, has nine and Information Minister Shazia Marri has 11 police guards. Senior Minister Pir Mazharul Haq has 28 police guards, MPA Sher Mohammad Afzal has eight, Faisal Sabzwari has 10, Nadia Gabol has eight, and Minister for Zakat and Ushr Sajid Jokhio has 10 police guards.

Sindh Assembly Speaker Nisar Khuhro has 14 guards while Deputy Speaker Shehla Raza has 10 police guards.

Minister for Rural Development Zubair Ahmed has 10 police guards, Minister for Katchi Abadis Rafiq Engineer has eight, Minister for Revenue Syed Murad Ali Shah has eight and Syed Shoaib Bukhari also has eight police guards.

43 guards for one person

Home Minister Dr Zulfiqar Mirza enjoys the security of 43 police guards, the highest number on such duty.

Senator Babar Ghori has 19 police guards, Dr Farooq Sattar has 20, MNA Haider Abbas Rizvi has nine, Israrul Ibad has 12, Nabeel Gabol has 15, MNA Waseem Akhtar also has 15, and the MQM's Rabita Committee has 11 police guards. There are eight police guards at Kingri House, the Karachi residence of PML-F chief Pir Pagara.

Records show that Makhdoom Amin Fahim has been provided with four police guards. PPP Karachi president Faisal Raza Abedi has six police guards, while former CPLC chief Jameel Yousaf has seven police guards.

City Nazim Mustafa Kamal has 40 police guards, Naib Nazim Nasreen Jalil has 10, and former city nazim Niamatullah Khan has eight police guards, the data shows.

Senator Abbas Kumaili has 18 police guards, Allama Talib Jauhari has eight, Sunni Tehreek chief Sarwat Ejaz Qadri has 12 and Dr Abdul Razzaq Sikandar has nine police guards.

Among the advisers for the provincial cabinet, adviser to the CM Khwaja Izhar-ul-Hasan has seven police guards, Rashid Rabbani has four, Maulana Ferozuddin Hazarvi has three, Gul Mohammad Lath three, while Gul Mohammad Jakharani and Ejaz Shaikh have one guard each, the data shows.

Adviser to the Sindh governor Yousaf Jamal has four police guards, Sharifuddin Pirzada three and Waqas Ahmed Malik has six police guards.

The judiciary

The official statistics show that among the prominent judges, Justice Aal-i-Maqbool Rizvi has 17 police guards; Chief Justice of Pakistan Abdul Hameed Dogar has five police guards in Karachi, former chief justice of Pakistan Ajmal Mian has 11, ATC judge Anand Ram Hatwani has 10, ATC judge Arshad Noor Khan has 12, judge Haq Nawaz Baloch has 20, Khwaja Naveed Ahmed has 13, Justice Qamaruddin Vohra has 11, Justice Rana Mohammad Shamim has 13 guards, and Prosecutor-General Shahadat Awan has 11 police guards. Advocate-General of Sindh Yousaf Leghari has 10 police guards for his security, the data shows.

Among government officials, home secretary Arif Ahmed Khan has 15 police guards, Sindh Ombudsman Asad Ashraf Malik has 30 police guards while chief secretary Fazlur Rehman has 16 police guards.

District Coordination Officer Javed Hanif has eight police personnel whereas the secretary to the CM Sohail Akbar and president of the National Bank of Pakistan Ali Raza have six police guards each, the figures show.

Police officers

Among the police officers having over 10 police guards are former inspector-general Asad Jehangir, who has 11, Additional Inspector-General Akhtar Husain Memon has 14, former PPO Azhar Ali Farooqi has 20, SP Asif Eijaz Shaikh has 15, SP Athar Rasheed Butt has 10 policemen, DIG Commander Shaukat Ali Shah has 10, DIG Falak Khursheed has 11, DIG Farooq Amin Qureshi has 11, DIG Fayyaz Laghari has 11 and SP Ferozuddin Abbasi has 15 police personnel. The data shows that former PPO Dr Shoaib Suddle has nine police guards.

DIG Mohammad Akbar Arain, who is now the CCPO of Quetta, has 13 policemen in Karachi, DIG Javed Iqbal has 20, DIG South Iqbal Mehmood has 15, DIG Khurram Gulzar has 11 and SP Latif Siddiqui has 15 police personnel on their guard duty.

The record shows that Mir Zubair Mehmood, posted as the FIA director, has 20 police guards.

Additional IG Nayyar Hasnain has 12 police guards, Additional IG Niaz Ahmed Siddiqui has 29, DIG Rana Altaf Majeed, posted as director of the Pakistan Media Regulatory Authority, has 13 police guards, DIG Sain Rakhio Mirani has 11, DIG Sardar Majeed Dasti has 11, DIG Saud Mirza has 21, SSP Shahid Hayat has 16, IG Prisons Yameen Khan has 11 police guards and Additional IG Tariq Jameel has 19 police personnel.

Additional IG for Investigation Zafar Ahmed Farooqi has 12 and DIG Zulfiqar Ali Shah has 13 police guards.

Sindh PPO Sultan Salahuddin Babar Khattak has 27 and CCPO Karachi Waseen Ahmed has 24 policemen on guard duties, the data shows.

The Governor's House has 97 police guards at its disposal while the Chief Minister's House has 33 police personnel for its security. Similarly, Bilawal House has 44 police personnel for security duties meant for Asif Ali Zardari.