KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister (CM) Syed Murad Ali Shah on Thursday said the Sindh police was one of the best forces in the world as they fought against terrorists, target killers and extortionists bravely.
He expressed these views while addressing the 40th batch of the passing out parade of 760 policemen at Shaheed Benazir Bhutto ELITE Police Training Center on Thursday. The ceremony was attended by Inspector General Police (IGP) Dr Kaleem Imam, Additional IG Dr Aftab Pathan, Commandant of Training Center Tanveer Otho and other concerned police officers.
“Peace has not returned here easily, it has taken the lives of our police, rangers and Pak Army personnel. I salute the martyrs and pay tribute to their families.”
The passing out policemen demonstrated their training skill and abilities to curb crime and handle sensitive situations. They presented a guard of honour to the chief minister on his arrival at the center.
The CM said that the morale of Sindh police was down when PPP government had taken over in 2008. “The reasons behind their low morale was the targeted killings of policemen who had participated in Operation Cleanup Karachi, their salary structure was lower than the police force of other provinces, there was no solid compensation system for martyrs, and the families of martyrs had no government patronage,” he counted and added the provincial government had adopted a holistic approach to address the issue.
Murad Ali Shah said that recruitments in police department were purely made on merit now, training courses have been designed for capacity building, salary structures have been enhanced and made at par with the salaries of police in other provinces, compensation for martyrs has also been enhanced, their health and educational services have been improved and they have also been equipped with the best arms and ammunition. “Today our police force is the best in Pakistan and can be compared with any police force in the world,” he said.
“In fact, Sindh police is the best in the world in the sense that it has fought bravely against terrorists, target killers, and even extortionists. While fighting, 2200 of them embraced shahadat,” he said.
“I salute them and their families. We have not left the families of martyrs alone, we are giving them salaries regularly apart from paying compensations as well,” he said.
The chief minister hoped that the batch of 760 policemen, including 148 women being passed out would be a good addition in the police force. “I have witnessed the abilities they demonstrated in their passing out programme – they are superb and well trained. I am sure they would deliver in the field,” he said.
“This training center was established during the 90s and so far, it has produced a force of 50,000 policemen,” he said while vowing to strengthen the training center further with an auditorium and other facilities.
He further said that he would consider the proposal of establishing a Police Cadet College (PCC and that he was favourably considering the proposal of upgrading constables from grade BPS-5 to BPS-7, head constables from BPS B-7 to BPS B-9 and ASI’s from grade B-7 to B-11.
CM Murad Ali Shah distributed certificates, medals and awards to the position holders of the training course.
