Sindh to spend 10pc more on law & order

Karachi
Sindh Finance Minister Murad Ali Shah announced in the provincial assembly on Saturday an increase of 10 percent in the law and order budget.
The home department has been allocated Rs64.458 billion for the fiscal year 2015-16 as against the current fiscal year’s budget of Rs58.623 billion, which shows an increase of 10 percent.
The finance minister’s budget speech included a proposal to give a raise to Sindh police.
Only time will tell how the government would ensure this raise. During the fiscal year ending on June 30, the Sindh police did not receive the sanctioned cost of investigations.
Investigation sources said that over the past several months they had not received the investigation cost, which had affected the investigation procedure.
The investigation department was facing a shortage of funds, vehicles and other equipment, they said, expressing that this time the provincial government would release the amount.
Officials claimed that in the past few months they had arrested or killed many notorious criminals and terrorists, the police were still waiting to get the reward money the government had announced for appreciating their gallantry.
The finance minister said that in keeping with the principles of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah who said the scrupulous maintenance and enforcement of law and order was a prerequisite for making progress, the government considered law and order one of its top priorities.
“We must acknowledge that Pakistan continues to pay a heavy price in its unwavering stand against terrorism. On 16th December 2014, the attack on Army Public School in Peshawar shook us all to our core. The subsequent attack at Wagah further enraged this nation. And the more recent attack on the Agha Khani community at Safoora broke our hearts.
“Shaken though we were as a nation, that did not deter us in our single-minded purpose of apprehending the perpetrators of these heinous crimes.”
The finance minister said” “I am relieved that we have been able to provide a small measure of solace to people, as the culprits of the Safoora massacre stand behind bars today.”
“Our commitment to establish and maintain law and order is also evident from the fact that the home department (including police, jails, rangers and other security agencies) is the second largest department in terms of resource allocation with a share of 13 percent in total current revenue expenditure in financial year 2015-16,” he added.
Money for LEAs
The finance minister said: “Our law enforcement agencies are the frontline fighters in this war and we stand behind them.”
He added: “To strengthen our law enforcement agencies, the overall budget of police has been increased from Rs50.915 billion to Rs61.84 billion for the financial year 2015-16. Similarly, the overall budget of Rangers has been increased from Rs2.22 billion to Rs2.448 billion for FY 2015-16.”
“I salute the personnel of the police and Rangers who have suffered injuries and laid down their lives so that the people can live in peace.
“Although, there can be no adequate compensation for their act of valor, to recognise their services, compensation cheques of over Rs500 million have been distributed to the families of Shaheed and injured police personnel.
“To encourage and support our police, the salaries of Sindh police have been raised and brought at par with the Punjab police and outstanding performing officers and officials have been granted cash rewards in millions of rupees.”
Rewards have also been approved for the recipients of the Quaid-e-Azam Police Medal (QPM) and President Police Medal (PPM).
Further, 100 police vehicles have been made bullet-proof and 35 APC have been upgraded to bombproof level.

Measures planned
A number of measures have been planned to further improve law and order.
To equip the Sindh police with the state of the art operational and security, equipment such as bullet-proof police mobiles, jackets, helmets, arms and ammunition and CCTV cameras, Rs4.115 billion was provided to the police during the current financial year, whereas Rs6.23 billion has been allocated for the next financial year.
To strengthen the police and address the issue of shortage of manpower, 10,030 posts have been created in the budget of 2015-16, which will improve the police to citizen ratio especially in Karachi and generally in Sindh at a cost of Rs1 billion.
An amount of Rs2 billion has been allocated for the purchase of transport and Rs500 million has been earmarked for making 200 vehicles bullet-proof and 100 police vehicles bomb-proof, Rs2 billion has been allocated for the purchase of new weapons and other assets for police, Rs650 million has been allocated for the expansion of security surveillance system and purchase of other equipment for technical advancement of police, and Rs250 million has been earmarked for the upgradation and renovation of police training centres.

National Action Plan
The Sindh government is also actively pursuing the National Action Plan with a number of measures to root out the menace of terrorism and hatred from society.
As many as 447 terrorists and criminals have been killed since January 2015 and 4,107 terrorists and criminals have been arrested during the first quarter of 2015, including commanders of al Qaeda and the TTP.
A total of 421 kilograms of explosives, seven suicide jackets, 292 bombs and 292 sophisticated weapons have also been seized across Sindh.
Sixty-one banned religious outfits have been identified while the Sindh Sound System (Regulation) Act, 2015 has been passed to curb hate speeches. As many as 736 cases have been registered and 400 accused arrested for violating the Loud Speaker Act since January 2015.
Thirty-eight cases have been registered and 44 accused arrested for promoting hate material, 585 cases have been registered and 1,211 Afghan refugees arrested and a comprehensive strategy has been designed for their repatriation.
Sixteen terrorists have been executed across the province and 85 cases were identified, out of which 64 were recommended for transfer to the military courts.
The Counter Terrorism Department has been established. As many as 2,000 retired army/rangers/police personnel have been appointed and 1,000 counter terrorism force is raised, with only six weeks of army training left.
The finance minister added that Madrassas promoting terrorism have been identified after a process of registration and a media committee has been formed to stop the glorification of terrorists.
Moreover, the Witness Protection Advisory Board has been notified according to the Witness Protect Act.