Murad terms Sindh police best force for fighting bravely with terrorists

KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Thursday said the Sindh police was one of the best forces in the world for they fought against terrorists, target killers and extortionists bravely across the length and breadth of the province.

“The peace has not returned here easily but it has taken lives of our police, Rangers and Pakistan Army personnel and I salute the martyrs and pay rich tribute to the families of shuhadas,” he said while addressing 40th batch of 760 men at the passing out parade of police at Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Elite Police Training Center Razakabad, Karachi.

Inspector General Police Dr Kaleem Imam, Additional IG Dr Aftab Pathan, Commandant of Training Center Tanveer Odho and other concerned police officers were also present on this occasion.

The chief minister said that the morale of Sindh police was down when the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) government had taken over in 2008.

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“The reasons behind low morale was targeted killing of policemen who had participated in operation clean up in Karachi, their salary structure was lower than the police force of other provinces, there was no solid compensation system for shuhada and the families of shuhadas had no government patronage,” he said adding that the provincial government now had adopted a holistic approach to address the issue.

The Pakistan Peoples Party leader said that recruitment in police department were purely made on merit, best training courses for their capacity building were designed, their salary structure was enhanced and made it at par with the salaries of police in other provinces, enhanced compensation for shuhda, improved their health and educational services and then equipped them with best arms and ammunition.

“Today our police force is the best in Pakistan and could be compared with any police force in the world,” he said.

“Sindh police is best in the world in the sense that it has fought bravely against terrorist, target killers, extortionists in the city and 2200 of them embraced shahadat,” he said and added “I salute them and their families. We have not left the families of shuhada alone but we are giving them salaries regularly apart from paying them compensation”.

The chief minister hoped that the batch of 760 policemen, including 148 women being passed out today would be a best addition in the police force.

“I have witnessed their abilities they demonstrated in their passing out programme – they are superb and well trained and I am sure they would deliver in the field,” he said.

“This training center was established during 90s and so far it has produced a force of 50,000 policemen,” he said and vowed to strengthen it further with auditorium and other required facilities.

He also said that he would consider the proposal of establishing a Police Cadet College.

CM Murad also said that he was favourably considering the proposal of upgradation of constables from grade BPS-5 to 7, Head constables from BPS B-7 to 9 and ASI from grade B-9 to 11.

The passing out policemen demonstrated their training skill and abilities to curb crime and handle sensitive situation. They presented guard of honour to the CM upon his arrival at the training center.

Murad distributed certificates, medals and awards among the position holders of the training course.

The IG police and commandant training center also spoke on the occasion.