Former Karachi Police chief Shahid Hayat passes away

KARACHI: Former city police chief, Shahid Hayat who remained in the media glare for years on account of the Karachi operation and the Mir Murtaza Bhutto murder case passed away on Tuesday night, his brother Yousuf Khan confirmed to The News.

The former Additional IG Karachi, Shahid Hayat, was suffering from cancer for a long time and succumbed to it at a private hospital on Tuesday. Before being appointed as the Additional IG Karachi, Hayat had served as DIG of Special Branch. He was appointed as the Karachi Police chief days after the Karachi operation was kicked off on September 5, 2013 on the directives of the-then prime minister Nawaz Sharif following the increased incidents of target killings, extortions and abductions.

Hayat played a vital role during Karachi operation, in collaboration with the paramilitary force. Hayat faced tremendous pressure from some political quarters during the Karachi operation. However, on May 2014, in a major reshuffle in the police hierarchy, Hayat was replaced by Ghulam Qadir Thebu on the orders of the Supreme Court, directing the Sindh government to remove all officers working on the “own pay scale” (OPS) basis.

Earlier in the career he, among several other police officers, remained embroiled in the Mir Murtaza Bhutto murder case in 1996, from which he was subsequently cleared. Hayat headed investigations into several high-profile cases including the Shahzeb murder case, which culminated in the arrest of Shahrukh Jatoi and his conviction. He also supervised the investigation into the Abbas Town bombing and arrested several suspects.

In 2014, Hayat served as Director Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Sindh and before that he served as DIG of the Crime Investigation Department. In October 2016, Hayat fell seriously ill during a visit to Nairobi, Kenya where he remained under treatment for some time. Hayat was in Nairobi as part of delegation of the National Institute of Management, Lahore where he was attending the mandatory senior management course. Following recuperation, Shahid Hayat Khan, was transferred to the Motorways Police in September 2017.