Zardari asks govt to increase compensation for heirs of fallen policemen to Rs10m

Karachi
Former Pakistan president and co-chairman of the Pakistan People’s Party Asif Ali Zardari asked the Sindh government on Wednesday to increase the compensation money for the heirs of the cops who fell in the line of duty from Rs2 million to Rs10 million.
Besides, he also told the provincial government to bear all expenses of education for the children of the slain policemen and offered the services of the Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology (Szabist) for this purpose.
Zardari was addressing a ceremony on Wednesday organised by the Sindh police department to distribute cheques among the families of 61 policemen who were killed on duty.
“The life of a person is precious and it cannot be returned through cash. But it is a big loss for the family as it loses its bread-earner,” he said.
“I, therefore, urge the government of Sindh to appoint a female police officer of SSP rank to run the Police Welfare Organisation and sign an agreement with Szabist to provide free and standard education to the children of martyred police personnel.”
The former president added that in addition to compensation money, the government would meet other needs of the families of police martyrs including provision of jobs, residential plots etc.
Zardari said the major difficulty in disposing of the compensation cases was to define the heirs of the martyrs. He directed the chief secretary to evolve an efficient mechanism by which the heirs of government employees could be registered in advance.
“I know well what martyrdom is as I myself belong to the family of martyrs. Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto embraced martyrdom and we follow their mission.”
He directed the provincial government to formulate the required laws to introduce an insurance policy for its employees and properties.
Earlier, Zardari distributed 61 cheques, each of Rs2 million, among the heirs. He also gave away keys of residential flats to serving police officers.
Speaking on the occasion, Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah said the PPP government had given a true sense of ownership to police. “Before our tenure, the Sindh police were in a very weak position and the overall atmosphere in the department was depressing. Neither did they have latest equipment, nor were they imparted latest training.”
As a result, Shah added, the law and order situation kept deteriorating with each passing day.
“When the PPP came into power, it raised the morale of the police force and enhanced their budget from Rs10 billion to Rs60 billion on the directives of party chief Asif Ali Zardari.”
The chief minister said his government had raised the amount of the compensation money for the heirs of martyred police personnel from Rs200,000 to Rs500,000 in 2008 and again from Rs500,000 to Rs2 million.
In cases of an extraordinary show of gallantry, heirs were given Rs20 million on the directives by Zardari.
Shah said the provincial government was providing training at par with international standards to the police force and it had created many special wings for dealing with terrorism effectively including the rapid response force.
“Because of these efforts and encouragement, the police force was tackling terrorism effectively and cases of heinous crimes had declined by 60 percent to 65 percent in Karachi,” he noted.
Earlier, IGP Ghulam Hyder Jamali said since last year, police had conducted over 4,000 raids, arrested 13,000 suspects and killed 799 criminals in encounters.
Among the criminals killed, 164 were terrorists, 42 kidnappers and 592 robbers.
In these shootouts with criminals, 181 cops had lost their lives.
The provincial police chief praised the government’s step of raising the compensation money from Rs500,000 to Rs2 million and increasing the salaries of cops at par with that of the Punjab police.
PPP senior vice chairman Makhdoom Amin Faheem, Senator Rehman Malik, Sindh Assembly speaker Agha Siraj Durani, members of the Sindh cabinet, MNAs and MPAs of the party and senior government officers also attended the ceremony.