KARACHI, Sept 7: Secrecy may be the hallmark of the police department, but the office of the provincial police chief set a new precedent recently when it issued notifications about transfers and postings of town police officers at three o’clock in the morning.
A central functionary of the home department personally called up several police officials advising them to take charge of their new posts as soon as possible, a police official said.
According to the Police Order-2002, the provincial police chief is entrusted with powers to post a district police officer or a town police officer, but in majority of the cases, he simply acts on the ‘strong recommendations’ made by the home department.
Similarly, the city police chief is supposed to enjoy the discretion of posting DSPs and SHOs, but again the CCPO has to act in accordance with the directives of the home department, at least in Sindh province.
“With a few exceptions, generally postings of TPOs are made in return for a handsome amount of graft which the aspiring officers pay to the middlemen maintaining right connections in the home department,” an insider told Dawn.
In the past, however, the practice of securing a post against illegal gratification was limited to the level of station house officers (SHOs), according to the source. And, he adds, it is still very much followed these days. The post of SHO costs around Rs500,000 to Rs700,000. The amount, of course, depends upon the potential of the police station, said a police official. The same implies in the posting orders of the DSPs.
“Corruption in postings is rampant to such an extent that in some towns, a post of even head-mohrar is sold to the highest bidder by the TPO concerned,” a police official, requesting anonymity, divulged.
The Police Order-2002 has not only bifurcated the operations and investigation wings, but has also carved out 19 towns from among the four defunct districts, creating ample opportunities of revenue generation (graft), a police official remarked.
“Naturally, an officer who pays a hefty sum to secure a post, will recover the ‘investment’ and start earning profit in a shortest possible time,” a source argued.
Depending on the town, the post of TPO costs its aspirant around Rs1 million to 1.2 million, said another source.
“Towns like Gadap and Bin Qasim have a reputation of having a TPO who must have been the highest bidder to fetch the post,” remarked a source.
A good relationship between a TPO and the concerned town nazim has also proved to be a vital requirement for the TPOs continued job in that particular town.
In New Karachi Town, TPO Shafi Rind left his office when he developed discord with the town nazim. The post remained vacant for sometime before Hafeez Junejo took the charge. However, shortly after, he was also removed and SP Fayyaz Qureshi was posted there as TPO.
A few months back, TPO Liaquatabad Asif Aijaz had to relinquish his post due to differences with Town Nazim Osama Qadri.
The transfer of Dr Sanaullah Abbasi, TPO Saddar, had come as a surprise for many in the Aug 16 notification. Sources said that his transfer was on the cards for a considerable time, following successive raids at a bridge club in the jurisdiction of Risala police station.
Sources said that a former TPO of Jamshed Town, Capt Tahir Naveed, had been aspiring for the post of TPO Saddar for quite some time.
The Lyari Town, where a dynamic officer was required to act as TPO following a recent incident that led to the suspension of the Lyari Task Force personnel, was instead gifted with DSP Shahnawaz, who had spent much of his time getting off and on postings in Gadap Town. He recently held the charge of TPO Landhi for 15 days after suspension of his predecessor Qasim Ghori, who had twice been suspended and reinstated as TPO Landhi.
The second largest town in terms of population, Gulshan-i-Iqbal, has finally got a full time TPO following the Aug 16 notification. The town had either additional or a temporary TPO for over two months.
“According to the Police Order-2002, a TPO and an SHO will have a three-year tenure and before the stipulated time period, they cannot be removed without a defined procedure as mentioned in the order,” a senior police official pointed out.
Even for the appointment on such a post, there is a certain procedure, and a panel, also having representation of the members of the Public Safety Commission, is supposed to decide about the posting, another official added.
The Police Order-2002 came into effect in February 2002, but even some police officials are of the opinion that the authorities in Sindh appeared selective in implementing the order.
“The Sindh home department has virtually set the Police Order-2002 aside as far as postings of TPOs and SHOs are concerned,” a senior police officer requesting anonymity remarked.
Yet another police official holding a key post in the present set up, declined to be quoted over the posting’s issue, but tacitly acknowledged the problem saying: “There isn’t much we can do,” admitting that the decision about postings are taken somewhere else as the IG or CCPO are just ‘rubber stamps’.