The Police & The PPP

By Amir Zia 
Monday, July 14, 2014 
The News 

As the PPP’s onslaught on the police continues, there is not a single voice being raised by any of the elected representatives that calls for giving operational autonomy and independence to the force. One hardly sees any light at the end of the tunnel as the PPP, its ally the MQM and the opposition in the Sindh Assembly all appear on the same page in keeping the police hostage to the political bosses. Democracy’s revenge continues... 

Why did the PPP-led provincial government fire Inspector General of Sindh Police Iqbal Mehmood? There were no formal corruption charges against him. He was also not accused of any irregularity or of violating the law. He was mentally and physically fit to lead the police force – perhaps more fit than the ageing Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah, who crossed retirement age long ago, but by the grace of the Almighty, is still considered fit as a fiddle by former president Asif Ali Zardari and his close associates.
Then why was IG Iqbal Mehmood removed so unceremoniously? This is the question that should be asked by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan. This is the question that should haunt every concerned Pakistani who is opposed to corruption and wants to see rule of law in the country. 
Mehmood’s ‘crime’ was not corruption, but his refusal to be part of a controversial deal for the purchase of substandard, but costly armoured personnel carriers (APCs) and other equipment for his force.
In fact, the story of this proposed shady deal starts in 2012 when a PPP stalwart – who obviously is a close friend of former president Zardari – started pushing for it, but failed to get it materialised because of some stiff resistance from within the Sindh Police and objections from the National Accountability Bureau.
The Sindh government wanted to bypass all procedural requirements for this deal, which was initially for the purchase of sixteen B-7 plus type of APCs from a Serbian company at a whopping cost of Rs1.24 billion. According to the initial purchase plan, three of these APCs were eight wheelers, while were 13 four wheelers.
The provincial authorities even signed a memorandum of understanding, but the plan was shelved because of public hue-and-cry and objections from NAB about the lack of transparency in this whole affair. Even a committee headed by the then Sindh home secretary advised the political leadership to scrap the plan.
But trust the PPP’s consistency, determination and ingenuity at least when it comes to striking contentious business transactions that it managed to revive the stalled process.
On February 7, the ruling party and their ‘partners in crime’ – the so-called opposition – passed the Sindh Emergency Procurement Bill 2014 in the provincial assembly; this sets aside the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority’s (PPRA) rules for one year for emergency purchases for the Karachi police. 
Now armed with this new law, the Sindh government resumed efforts to close the deal, which reportedly swelled to Rs8.0 billion as the purchasing order now also includes bulletproof jackets and other equipment. But Sindh Police Chief Iqbal Mehmood refused to ‘cooperate’ on grounds of the high costs and reservations about the specification and standards of the equipment.
Our efficient Sindh Chief Minister, who has a reputation of going an extra mile to follow the biddings of the former president and his close friends, removed the last hurdle in this deal by sacking IG Mehmood. 
Willy-nilly, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif also had to go along with this decision during his recent visit of Karachi though he told the provincial leadership that the frequent changes in the police command is damaging for the ongoing operation against terrorists and criminals.
Now the Sindh government is trying to bring such an officer as IG Sindh who can ensure that the controversial deal sails through. The federal government is likely to look the other way because of its understanding with Zardari’s PPP that the country’s two main political forces won’t try to upset each other’s apple carts.
Interestingly, the Sindh government has demanded money from the federal government to purchase another 40 APCs. It is anybody’s guess which company is likely to get the purchase order.
The saga of the PPP’s passion for a deal with the Serbian company gets more twisted with reports that the same PPP stalwart is the local partner of the Serbian company for tractor manufacturing. These tractors will be given to the poor and rich farmers of this province through the provincial government’s very own Sindh Bank.
Iqbal Mehmoods, Shahid Hayats and all such police officers hold little chance to perform their duties when our so-called legislators and democrats are themselves working against the system. Their pit of greed is limitless; and the rot of corruption embedded too deep.
Should we be astonished then that the Sindh provincial government fired another IG Police within months of his assuming charge? Should we be shocked that Mehmood’s only crime was that he opposed a controversial deal?
With this latest dismissal of the IG Sindh, the PPP provincial government has now achieved the unprecedented distinction of sacking more than a dozen officers from this position during its six years of uninterrupted rule. The reasons for these removals, transfers and sackings have never been professional. All these officers were shown the door because they refused to cross certain red-lines and dance at every tune of the PPP bosses.
It is now no more news that the average term of an IG in Sindh lasts for just five to six months. The tenure of the Karachi police chief, another sought after, but highly risky position, is on average only 12 weeks – half the period than that of the IG. During the last 20 months or so, Karachi has welcomed and bid farewell to at least six officers on this coveted slot.
Under this golden democratic era of the PPP, the shelf life of other officers including DIGs, SSPs, DSPs and SHOs is even shorter at any given position. The term of SHOs on average has been reduced to less than a month now – so much for the much-talked about mantra of consistency and continuity. All these frequent transfers and posting are not made in an attempt to improve the efficiency of the police, but to tame its officers and men further into submitting to the politicians.
The PPP has moved to destroy the Sindh Police by snatching away the powers of transfer of grade 18 and 19 officers from the IG Sindh and placing it with the chief secretary. This is the latest anomaly introduced by the PPP in the system. It means that those District Management Group officers are making key decisions of transfers and postings in the police at the behest of their political bosses who even do not know their men or the requirements of the policing job. The powers to transfer and appoint grade 20 and above officers already rest with the provincial government.
The move has further compromised the police force and made its officers hostage to the whims and wishes of the provincial government. Yes, since the return of ‘true and pure’ democracy in the country, the wheel is going backwards.
The elected representatives were quick to scrap the Police Order of 2002 in favour of the colonial-era Police Act of 1861. The Musharraf-era Police Order gave a fixed three-year term to senior police officers, who could only be removed if found guilty of corruption or irregularity.
But our so-called democrats want a subservient police force. Instead of granting the police operational independence and autonomy as is done in all civilised nations, the PPP bosses have taken away whatever little independence existed before.
No wonder that the much-needed police reforms are not even on the agenda of the elected representatives as they see any such move will hurt their own narrow vested interests.
The PPP’s relentless efforts to dominate the police have indeed further compromised the force’s effectiveness and operational capabilities. When police officers feel insecure on their positions all the time, they can hardly concentrate on fighting crime and terrorism on a mid- to long-term basis.
As the PPP’s onslaught on the police continues, there is not a single voice being raised by any of the elected representatives that calls for giving operational autonomy and independence to the force. One hardly sees any light at the end of the tunnel as the PPP, its ally the MQM and the opposition in the Sindh Assembly all appear on the same page in keeping the police hostage to the political bosses. Democracy’s revenge continues…

Policing Reloaded

By Amir Zia
Monday, May 26, 2014
The News

The prime importance for Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah and his team appears to get men of their choice to lead the police. The removal of Shahid Hayat is just another symptom of the grave ailment that continues to grip this anti-people and unfair system.
 
Additional Inspector General of Karachi Police Shahid Hayat had to bid adieu after remaining in office for less than nine months – a relatively long term for an officer in a city where many last on similar positions barely two to three months on an average.
The new man – Ghulam Qadir Thebo – is the sixth officer to assume charge of this coveted, but treacherous slot in a period of about 18 months. This means that the average lifespan of a Karachi police chief is barely 12 weeks, which highlights the prevalent ad hocism and uncertainty in the police force, assigned to combat crime and terrorism in one of the most dangerous mega-cities of the world.
Similarly, about a dozen inspector generals have come and gone over a period of six years in the Sindh Police – making their average stay in office no longer than six months.
Deputy inspectors general, senior superintendents, superintendents, their deputies and station house officers have much shorter terms. They are mostly appointed and then transferred or removed within weeks or a couple of months.
The brief ‘honeymoon’ phase is all an officer gets in any position in the Sindh Police. In this period, the officer naturally takes a few days to settle in the new job, attempts to build a team, gets some familiarity with the usual and unusual challenges of his assignment and by the time he enters the planning or implementation phase, there are marching orders for him. Then comes a new man, and the familiar cycle begins again.
Political bosses keep police officers on a tight leash – not to fight crime, but to follow their whims. Favourites are thrust on lucrative positions and officers who try to resist land on the sidelines. There are pressures to go soft on politically-connected criminals and killers, demands to set them free and even tamper with their First Investigative Reports so that they can get benefit of doubt in courts and thus walk free.
Ask any police officer and you will hear that political interference remains the worst predicament for the force under the PPP rule in the province. And unfortunately, there are hardly any hopes for an improvement.
Shahid Hayat’s removal is just another demonstration of how politicians have been keeping the police force hostage. As reported in the press, the Sindh government had been vying to get rid of him for the past several months.
The reason – he ruffled many sacred feathers since taking charge of his office on September 13. He resisted political appointments and transfers, tried to build a team of relatively clean officers to spearhead the operation against criminals and terrorists, went after Lyari gangsters – many of whom enjoy patronage of some PPP stalwarts – raided MQM offices and took on the Al-Qaeda-inspired local Taliban, who use Karachi to rest, regroup and raise funds through bank robberies, extortion, kidnappings and other crimes.
It was certainly not that Karachi became less dangerous or less lawless when Hayat was holding the fort. The number of street crimes, according to the Citizens-Police Liaison Committee, jumped by nearly 20 percent during the last eight months, but at least the Karachi police had been taking initiatives and going to areas that were once considered out of bounds. 
As a result, there was a 35 percent drop in killings during the eight months of the operation, while extortion and kidnapping for ransom cases declined between 10 to 15 percent. Police killed 253 criminals during the first 248 days of the operation compared with 81 in the same number of days prior to the crackdown.
Given Karachi’s peculiar and complex demography, continued political interference in policing and the old nexus between criminals and politicians, it was no mean achievement for the police force which lacks both in numbers and equipment for a city of Karachi’s size. Yes, against the approved strength of 31,064, Karachi police only has 26,847 men and women on duty. This means that for 819 citizens, there is only one police official available here, compared with Lahore’s ratio of 337 per official, Delhi’s 291, New York’s 237 and London’s 152. 
Lahore with an estimated population of 10.9 million – almost half the size of our mega port city’s 22 million – has a police force of 32,600. 
While attempts to oust Shahid Hayat were frustrated by the federal government and the DG Sindh Rangers in the past, the PPP-led provincial government this time around used a Supreme Court order of May 9 that ordered the demotion of all government employees working on senior posts on ‘own pay scale’ (junior grade).
The Sindh government – known for poor governance, inefficiency and dragging its feet even on basic issues from providing timely relief to drought victims of Tharparkar to potable water in rural Sindh – in this case moved with haste to implement the court order.
It never occurred to the Sindh government’s bosses to take the administrative decision and make the slot of Karachi police chief a ‘floating-position’ for grade 20/21 officers as done by the other provincial governments, including Punjab, in their major cities. In the past, the Karachi police chief’s position was also for grade 20 officers as in the other provinces.
The Sindh government decided not to file a review petition in the honourable Supreme Court. Its mala fide intentions are revealed from the fact that the Supreme Court order was implemented selectively in the police department where around 20 officers of grade 18, including some of the favourites of former president Asif Ali Zardari, continue to serve in grade 19 positions.
Rules also allow appointment of a junior grade officer at a senior position if there is a genuine reason. In this case, the valid reason remains that the Sindh Police has only three grade 21 officers in its ranks against seven such positions. As a result, now four out of seven grade 21 positions, including that of CIA and traffic chiefs, are vacant.
This politically-loaded decision of a change of guard in the Karachi police team when the operation against criminals and terrorists is entering the third phase has rightly drawn criticism from the federal government. In a strongly-worded statement, Information Minister Pervaiz Rasheed has said that Sindh government showed “irresponsible and non-serious behaviour” by removing Shahid Hayat. The decision has also created uncertainty in the police force, which has lost more than 100 men, including one SSP and six inspectors, during the operation.
Efforts to beat crime and terrorism are likely to take a hit in the city as the new team leader of the Karachi police will take his natural time to build his team amidst interference of the Sindh government, which wants to see officers of its choice on various positions – from DIGs to SHOs – a move resisted by Shahid Hayat.
Instead of initiating the much-needed police reforms, which should include doing away with the culture of political interference in the police force and giving it operational autonomy, the Sindh government has stuck to its tried, tested and failed methods aimed at serving vested interests of those PPP’s bigwigs known for their passion for promoting commercial interests or patronising crime mafias of Lyari.
The Sindh government would have served Karachi better had it taken steps to increase the strength of the police force and introduced a protection programme for witnesses and police officers in the forefront in fighting terrorism. 
The Karachi police need improvement in infrastructure including renovation of police stations and housing facilities. The force requires better training and human resource. It should be provided incentives of medical insurance and other welfare projects so that police personnel can face challenges with greater confidence. It must have modern equipment – from armoured personnel carriers to bulletproof jackets and communication network – to make Karachi a little less dangerous and a bit more liveable.
But all these vital steps remain low on Sindh government’s agenda. The prime importance for Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah and his team appears to get men of their choice to lead the police. The removal of Shahid Hayat is just another symptom of the grave ailment that continues to grip this anti-people and unfair system.

A Witches’ Brew

By Amir Zia
March 17, 2014
The News

The government needs a holistic approach for peace in Karachi. And the first step starts with political will. Are the leading parties, including the PPP and the MQM, ready to stop supporting criminals? Apart from offering lip-service to this objective, our politicians have not moved an inch in this regard. 

Karachi’s bloodletting has an eerie pattern. Operation or no operation, there is always a modest drop in the day-to-day killings and sometimes even a brief period of lull. But then the haze of relative calm is blown away by one big act of butchery or a series of similar such acts and this grim fact manifests itself again in loud and clear terms that Karachi remains among the most dangerous, crime-ridden and lawless megacities of the world.
Therefore, the atrocious gun and grenade attack in the volatile neighbourhood of Lyari on March 12 that killed 16 people, mostly women and children, should not come as a surprise. The city has all the ingredients that make it a keg of gun-powder – ready to explode anytime.
There are politically-backed gangsters organised under various banners such as the notorious People’s Amn (Peace) Committee of Lyari. Due to the infighting among its various ring-leaders over the spoils of their criminal empire, this so-called peace committee now stands divided into two main groups – each baying for the blood of its rival faction members. 
The latest deadly attack, too, was the result of their continuing strife as various key political players continue to back this or that band of criminals. However, this time there has been a deviation from the set pattern of violence even by Lyari standards. It is for the first time that innocent residents were targeted in such a brazen manner – all because they happened to be in the area dominated by the rival faction of attackers.
Director General Sindh Rangers Maj General Rizwan Akhter hit the bull’s eye when he told Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif during his recent visit to Karachi that some of the key members of the Pakistan People’s Party, which is running the show in Sindh since 2008, continue to back the Lyari gangsters. No wonder that one of the most wanted criminal kingpins of the committee – Uzair Baloch – is cooling his heels abroad. How he managed to sneak out of the country underlines his connections with the rich and the powerful. 
Then we have the militant wings of all major political and religious parties, including the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, its dissident faction the Mohajir Qaumi Movement, the Jamaat-e-Islami, the Awami National Party, and various Sindhi and Baloch nationalists, who operate with impunity in Karachi – each according to its size. Many of these parties fight with one another to maintain or expand their turfs and extort money from small and big shopkeepers, businesspeople, industrialists, professionals and even ordinary low-income group citizens – often in the name of donations. Some of them also patronise land encroachers and other crime mafias.
The presence of heavily armed sectarian groups complicates the situation a little more. They carryout tit-for-tat killings and fan extremism and hate. These groups thrive and breed on the vast network of seminaries, raising funds from local sources both legally and illegally and also from their foreign patrons and supporters in different ‘brotherly’ Muslim countries. 
The list of promoters, abettors and executioners of crime and terrorism does not end here. A deadly challenge also comes from the Al-Qaeda inspired militants operating under the banner of the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and other shadowy terrorist cells and groups.
This witches’ brew also includes the small and big dons of the crime world, drug-peddlers, weapon smugglers, gambling den operators, local thugs and petty street criminals who operate independently or associate themselves with one or the other party. Indeed fighting violence, terrorism and crime in such a vast city, with its myriad socioeconomic and civic problems and so many destabilising factors, can be a nightmare for any police force of the world. 
The effectiveness of the police, Sindh Rangers and the other law-enforcement agencies is compromised because of the political interference, expediency, opportunism and apathy of the elected representatives, who are more part of the problem than the solution. Playing by the book is not their article of faith. They are driven by short-term political goals and narrow self-interests.
Ask Karachi Police Chief Shahid Hayat to name the gravest of all these destabilising factors and he will say that it is politically-motivated violence that overlaps organised crime – from land encroachments to the extortion racket. To put it simply: it is the criminalisation of politics and politicisation of crime that remains the mother of all that is evil in Karachi.
For Hayat, the Al-Qaeda inspired militants too pose a big security challenge and have the capacity to stage massive deadly terrorist attacks, but they are devoid of support from the local population. Therefore, they are manageable. The real challenge is political violence, he says.
And his line of argument seems to make sense. Police will be able to take on criminals and assassins more effectively if political parties remove the umbrellas that protect them.
The turmoil and lawlessness in Lyari – a gift of the PPP rule in Sindh – is a case in point as it emerges as the biggest disruptive factor in today’s Karachi. Gangsters not only hold the entire population of Lyari hostage, but also operate the extortion racket and other heinous crimes, especially in the city’s old parts where key wholesale and retail markets and businesses are located.
The short-sighted policy of some of the PPP Sindh stalwarts of patronising criminals damaged the party in its main stronghold in Karachi. The locality – once the hub of democratic movements – is now controlled by gangsters, who have sidelined the local political activists.
In this situation, should one take heart from the prime minister’s announcement that the operation against criminals and terrorists would continue till the restoration of peace in Karachi? In a way yes, but shouldn’t fighting crime and terrorism be a round-the-clock job?
Operations have limited objectives and a set timeframe. Karachi’s complicated case cannot be handled through a mere operation, though it did manage to bring the rate of killings down to 1,005 in its first 184 days (up to March 7) compared with the 1,448 killed in the same number of days before the start of the crackdown. However, incidents such as the one that took place in Lyari should serve as a grim reminder that until the root-causes of lawlessness are not addressed, Karachi’s pot will remain on the boil. More than 10,000 arrests and killing of 150 plus criminals and terrorists can only give short-term relief. There will be new gangsters, militants and terrorists to replace them.
The government needs a holistic approach for peace in Karachi. And the first step starts with political will. Are the leading parties, including the PPP and the MQM, ready to stop supporting criminals? Apart from offering lip-service to this objective, our politicians have not moved an inch in this regard.
The other important step is to ensure that the police force is not compromised by political interference. It needs independence and autonomy to do its job. The federal and provincial governments should move to introduce the much-awaited police reforms including appointment of officers on merit and for a fixed term.
Police training on modern lines, introduction of latest investigation techniques, effective prosecution and capacity building, including expansion of the force and provision of modern weapons and communication facilities, should also be the part of the package. Karachi needs double the size of its existing police force of 34,000 personnel. For instance, the four police stations of Lyari until recently had only 300 men available for all three shifts. Recently this strength has been raised by another 400. But is that enough? 
Judicial reforms for quick dispensation of justice and lifting of the ill-advised moratorium on death penalty are also some of the must-needed steps.
It will all be mere talk of bringing peace in Karachi if the government fails to take these steps. It is time for rulers to match their words with action. Failing to do so means that Karachiites should be prepared for more horrific incidents such as the one that recently occurred in Lyari. Yes, the bloodletting will continue in the same old fashion.