Does Sindh really need more money for arms?

Does Sindh really need billions of rupees more for the purchase of arms to fight terrorism? What happened to Rs1.5 billion contract with the POF, Wah and big contracts with some foreign companies to purchase sophisticated weapons? These are some of the questions the provincial government and the police need to answer before they go for fresh demands.
There is no doubt that the police still faces shortage of manpower, particularly in Karach, the largest city, which has police-to-people ratio of 1 to 700 as against the standard 1 to 300. But, when it comes to purchase of weapons and police mobile, their case is not as strong as the Sindh chief minister, Syed Qaim Ali Shah, or high police officials try to portray. For this, they should blame themselves for poor management.
In the last apex meeting in Karachi some decisions were taken to improve the performance of the police and it was decided that the police would get training from the army’s SSG commandos and that efforts would be made to stop political interference in police.
But within a week the manner in which some police officials were assigned to tackle former interior minister, Dr Zulfiqar Mirza showed increased political interference in police.
In the same meeting the chief minister raised the issue of lack of funds for the purchase of arms. He raised this issue when he met Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Does Shah Sb know the status of huge consignments of arms lying in Wah factory for the last two years?
Details gathered by the writer revealed that arms worth more than Rs1.5 billion should have been at the disposal of Sindh police by now. Some within police believe that it would be quite sufficient for the present force.
Sources said the Centre transferred the money to Sindh some two years back and the same was given to the police after which orders were placed for purchase of arms including A-3, the latest version of Kalashnikov and other sophisticated weapons.
When I asked the spokesman of the Sindh police for official response the reply was quite confusing. “I think there is some litigation or also some other reasons.” When asked how much weapons are available to the police and of what kind, he said, “This is classified information.”
However, he was kind enough to provide information about the exact strength of the police force and the budget sanctioned last year. They must be looking for big increase in the next financial year. Where the money had been spent and how, is another story for some other day.
There is also some mystery about some foreign contracts for arms ordered about a year back, for which nominal payments were made. These include some 5,000 M-4 rifles, each costing 1400 USD, 10,000 Colt pistols and 20,000 bulletproof helmets etc. Police sources said there are some ‘technical’ problems in these contracts.
There are also some standard procedures in the police department for the use of weapons like which officer or official could use which weapon except in emergency cases.
What is more interesting is the strength of police mobiles and the amount of money spend on their “repair,” almost every second months.
There are some 7,500 police mobiles and 400 new mobiles were also ordered last year. Where are these new mobiles? Are they ready, and if so, where are they parked? Secondly, how many police mobiles are on VIPs duty? How many of them are in the personal use of police officers? Why we still see sub-standard police mobiles on roads? Why is there not enough money for petrol or diesel?
The question is: can you fight a war against terrorism in such a scenario? One must give credit to the police for fighting the battle along with the Rangers. But is the demand for more money to purchase weapons justified? What about the arms they have ordered for? Why this delay in receiving the consignments? Is this not a case of gross mismanagement?
There is said to be lack of coordination between the Rangers and the police and it is said that the latter did not take the former into confidence over the arrest of some of the wanted terrorists in the recent high-profile killings including the massacre of 47 Ismaili and killing of human rights activist Sabeen Mahmood. In the recent operations there were no coordination between the police and Rangers and both carried out operations on their own.
Syed Qaim Ali Shah, who is captain of the ongoing operation, needs proper briefing before he presents Sindh’s case for more arms to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
The writer is a senior analyst and columnist of Geo, The News and Jang