ISLAMABAD: The Karachi operation — launched amidst great fanfare in September last year in the hopes of improving the law and order situation in the country’s commercial capital — is currently in dire straits.

The federal government now seems to be putting the onus of the operation slacking off squarely on the provincial government’s shoulders.

A senior official of the federal government, who has been actively associated with the team responsible for the planning and execution of the operation, said: “I must accept, with a heavy heart that, having lost whatever momentum we had built up in the beginning, the Karachi operation is almost dead now.”

The core team, consisting of officers from the Sindh police, Rangers and intelligence agencies who were meticulously selected to lead the operation, is now all but dismantled, he deplored.

“Within the first few months, we tracked down several target killers, criminals and Tehreek-i-Taliban (TTP) operatives and nabbed most of them successfully,” the official said. As a result, the number of target killings declined significantly from November last year.

Picking out honest and apolitical officers from a heavily-politicised force was a mammoth task, he said, adding that it was unfortunate that political commitment from the top dried up as soon as the team started to deliver.

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The political masters of many of these arrested criminals began to feel the heat of the operation and raised a hue and cry. They accused law enforcers of being prejudiced in their arrests and even alleged that they were involved in extra-judicial killings.

“Following the removal of Additional Inspector General (AIG) Shahid Hayat in May, the Karachi operation lost its direction. Now the Sindh government has removed another IG, Iqbal Mehmood, who was appointed at the recommendation of that very government,” the official said.

A source who was present at Thursday’s meeting in Karachi — chaired by the prime minister himself — confirmed that the government of Sindh seemed to have lost interest in the operation.

“Behind-the-scene manoeuvres are influencing decision-making at the provincial level, as is obvious from the recent reshuffling of the Sindh police force. The other day, when the prime minister asked Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah about the latest IG’s transfer, the chief minister had no answer,” he said.

The delay in the purchase of armoured personnel carriers, bulletproof jackets, helmets and other protective gear that the Sindh police had asked the provincial government for, was another major factor that affected the outcome of the operation.

In one of the earlier meetings chaired by the prime minister, the Sindh CM had asked the federal government for Rs7 billion for the procurement of crime fighting equipment. In the same meeting, the CM also said the provincial government would contribute Rs5 billion for the purchases.

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However, all the procurement was to be carried out under the Sindh Emergency Procurement Bill 2014, bypassing Public Procurement Regulatory Authority rules. The money spent for the purpose was taken from a ‘secret fund’, giving the provincial government complete leeway to buy the equipment from a country and company of its choosing.

The official told Dawn that IG Iqbal had differences of opinion regarding new inductions in the police force, which led to his premature transfer.

Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Memon told Dawn he was unaware of these issues, but said that the provincial government had written to the centre to appoint a new IG.

Published in Dawn, July 12th, 2014