Centre, Sindh continue with talks to decide on new provincial police chief

The government of Sindh is considering Additional IG Ghulam Nabi Memon for the post of the Sindh inspector general of police. It has also requested the federal government to not appoint a federal officer against the post as it would take time for him to know the dynamics of the province.

Officials privy to the development told The News said that since after the transfer of Mushtaq Mahar from the Sindh police chief’s post, several names started to circulate for the post, among whom the most favourite was former Balochistan IGP Mohsin Butt. However, meetings are under way to decide the new Sindh IGP and in the meantime, senior officer Kamran Fazal was given the acting charge of the Sindh police chief.

It was the federal government that showed interest to post Butt as the Sindh IGP. He is presently serving in the federal government and had also served in other regions of Pakistan. The Sindh government, however, suggested the name of Memon as the next IGP as he had served the Sindh police for the past many years and was appointed as the Karachi police chief two times.

The provincial government believes that Memon has vast knowledge of Karachi and other regions of Sindh and is also aware of the crime dynamics of the province. He also served at key positions in the Intelligence Bureau and during his posting as the Karachi police chief, a number of terrorist networks were busted.

Sources say that the decision for posting of the IGP has not came to the conclusion as the Sindh government has requested that federal government to post an IGP from Sindh, preferably Memon.

The provincial government has also conveyed it to the federal government that if a new officer from Centre was appointed as the IGP, it would take him three to four months to understand the provincial situation.

Officials said Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah conducted the interview of Memon along with provincial ministers.

It is expected that a notification regarding the posting of the IGP would be issued after the retirement of Fazal, which is expected in coming weeks, and if the judiciary pronounces a verdict, a notification would be issued on June 3 in this regard.

According to officials, Addl IG Special Branch Sindh Javed Alam Odho shall be appointed as the next Karachi police chief. Meanwhile, Memon met business community members at the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) on Wednesday.

The Karachi additional IGP said that he had visited the KCCI many times and believed that the police could not succeed without support from the people. He remarked that there were many problems to be solved and the police were working on the Safe City project that would be launched soon.

The Karachi additional IGP also requested the business community to install CCTV cameras in their business premises. He explained that upon his similar requests, people has installed 44,000 such cameras, due to which if there was a crime incident, its video was easily obtained that helped catch the culprits.

Memon said the police were working on three types of community projects. He thanked the people of Karachi for supporting the police. He said that if crime was not registered, police could brag about its performance because of good figures but he insisted on the registration of every crime. He said he did not want to manipulate crime statistics. If there was a crime, it should be registered so that the criminals could be caught, he remarked.