Bickering over Sindh IGP hurting Federation, police

A nonissue of the IGP appointment in Sindh has brought the federal and the provincial government relations under strain, kicking up a needless political storm. The issue has brought forth constitutional violation, the political behaviour of the provincial and federal governments in preventing police reforms to take shape.

It is a sad commentary on the state of politics that these forces are the first to offset any reforms despite the customary lip service. The 2002 police reforms introduced by former president Gen (retd) Musharraf was quickly reversed by the next government. Being elected representatives, the politicians are supposed to help their electorates in sorting out their police-related issues and are by the same token are directly responsible to keep the cities, province and the country crime-free, but in our case, the logic has largely been upended to using the law enforcement agency to ignore, cover-up and facilitate the politics-crime nexus and harass the political rivals reducing the police over the years as an appendage of the political masters. But they are not the only ones manipulating police.

With real estate development taking place at a fast pace almost in every city, the builders have also found the use of the police and have emerged as a powerful group calling shots in transfer and postings of police officers, even senior PSP officers, and the IG couldn’t fix that. Lahore a city many times smaller than Karachi continues to show a higher crime rate which only goes on to prove there is something seriously wrong. for decades one of the major reasons for Karachi police failure to stem crime effectively is its strength in terms of the population they are supposed to safeguard, they are piteously falling short of the optimal numbers. The issue was never raised and the provincial and federal governments are not concerned.

Several federal government-led inquiries against PSP officers in Sindh have established them to be running petrol pumps across the province selling the unrefined and smuggled variety, changing the Police Services of Pakistan acronym to the “Petroleum Services of Pakistan,” the serious issue hardly concerned the governments that many times initiated the investigation but consigned them to record rooms.

Kaleem Imam was among those rare officers whose appointment was greeted with high expectations from those living and working in Karachi and who have to suffer indignity from the stalking gangs of street criminals. The police under his watch could not deliver against the street crimes except to complain that his mother in law was mugged in the city. But the provincial government was certainly not pushed by any of these issues. Though circumstances are little known, Kaleem imam did invite the wrath of the Sindh government for resisting the surrendering of the services of around 10 PSP officers that the chief minister had put his foot down, though some of the actions by the igp raise uncomfortable questions. As if a tradition, the same Sindh govt had a falling out with previous IGP AD Khowja who went to the SHC and later SC to find a solution to the issue at that time. the former director FIA Zubair Mahmood who served in Karachi and investigated the steel mill affairs and found PPP leaders involved also did not go to media to highlight the bad blood. Most importantly the erosion of service character of the police is a bigger tragedy as unless if the common man cannot get help then securing tenures of officers, new crispy uniforms, buildings and glitzy horn blaring escort cars clearing the way for the VIPs, under the reforms is not helpful.

Some years ago an SSP, took a stand against an industrialist for dumping corrosive effluents near a shantytown in Karachi leading to the amputation of legs of some children playing in that pool of wastewater. The SSP ordered registration of criminal cases against the factory owners, despite intense pressure from the industrialists as well as the MQM minister of industries. Angered at the SSP's action the irate minister for industries got the SSP transferred. This is the service outlook that the police officers must uphold and the digs and IGs must uphold otherwise protected tenures of PSP has no importance for the common man against the powerful, who will have their way anyway. Across the country, none of the provincial governments can boast a strong commitment to police reforms on upholding the SC guidelines about the tenures of the IGPs. Punjab witnessed the transfer of 4 IGPs in a matter of one year. Similarly, the whole bunch of police and intelligence officers behind the Sahiwal tragedy got scot-free. The prime minister's own track record over police reforms is hardly worth emulating. The former IG KPK, Nasir Khan Durrani, who was publicised as the face of efficient and service-oriented force in KP, by the 'opposition' leader Imran Khan was booted out as soon as he was brought to work on the most pledged police reforms.

Despite all criticisms of the Sindh government, the CM House has adopted the right procedure for removing the incumbent IG wrote to the PM thrice and even spoke to him and the latter even agreed to the Sindh’s candidate. Under the constitution and the relevant laws, it is the right of the province to have its candidate as the top cop as the law and order maintenance is primarily a provincial responsibility. The PM’s about-face on the commitment and not letting the province have its way looks like the man elected to the top office is drawing his pound of flesh from a province that is the only bastion of strong and vibrant opposition party ie the PPP.

The prime minister’s impulse and reflexes have not imparted him the skills and the art of reaching out to the opposition or keeping the allies in good humour inevitable for running the parliament and provinces under the spirit of the constitution and now more under the 18th Amendment. In fact, the man in the country’s top office wants to bulldoze the opposition and has never tried to hide his distaste for the autonomy provided to the provinces under the 18th Amendment, only time will tell if he can do that sometime later. The bonhomie witnessed during the vote for the COAS extension had rekindled hopes that many of the important bills closer to the heart of the govt and opposition would soon be translated into acts. But the PTI’s culture of putting off the allies and the opposition would seriously harm to the federation and by the same token to the new party in government. Imran’s compulsive behaviour to draw blood from the only opposition backed government in the country over a non-issue would have far-reaching consequences for the integrity of the federation.