With threats varying from militancy to target-killings, and street crime to kidnapping for ransom, Karachi battles against organised criminal gangs with only11,000 policemen. Almost half of the sanctioned strength of about 30,000 is deployed for security of influential individuals, foreign missions, and assigned administrative jobs.
“We are currently operating with 11,000 policemen deputed across 100 police stations in Karachi,” said Iqbal Mahmood, the city police chief designated as Additional IG Sindh police. “We have a total strength of about 30,000 policemen. Nearly 7,000 are deputed for security duties of different individuals, consulates and other key locations. A large number of policemen have been set aside for administrative jobs or engaged with specialised units like crime investigation department (CID), anti-violent crime cell (AVCC), anti-car lifting cell (ACLC), etc.”
Ideally, the city needs some 60,000 policemen for effective policing, said a senior official citing areas that seriously lacked in law-enforcement. Compared to other cities of the world, the population-police ratio of Karachi is the lowest, even lower than Lahore, while ideally it should be 1:250.
According to Iqbal Mahmood, police strength is one of the major hurdles in tackling crime in Karachi where the profession remains vulnerable, as more than 150 policemen who took part in the 1990s ‘Karachi operation’ have been assassinated one by one over 19 years in different parts of the city.
“According to Police Rules 1934, deployment of a certain number of policemen in a city must be based on its population, crime rate and per capita expenditure,” said a senior official. “But presently this is not being done.”
The official said in 2011, 4,444 policemen were recruited for Sindh police and in 2012 so far 3,000 vacancies were created. It is quite likely, he said, that 7,000 more openings may come up for Sindh police by the end of this year — a few months before the scheduled general elections.
Till September 5, 2012, 58 policemen were killed; the majority of whom were involved in successful operations and arrests of several important suspects.