If you want to know which way the wind blows in Sindh, just follow the comings and goings of its inspectors general of police. It is the surest barometer of power depending on whether the prime minister or the chief minister's man is in the chair.
The controversy
By January 12, in the latest saga on this front, we will be able to tell whether the federal government or the provincial government will have the upper hand. At the centre of this storm is the figure of Allah Dino Khawaja. He was made IG by the prime minister in March last year. But the Sindh government sent him on forced leave on Dec 19. By December 28, Piler’s Karamat Ali and singer-activist Shehzad Roy had filed a petition along with five others against his ‘forced leave’, asking the court to replace Police Rules 1934 with Police Order 2002, which ensures tenure postings.
AD Khawaja came back to work January 3 after what he said was a ‘15-day vacation’. The court will hear more from both sides on January 12. And while the outcome of the hearing this week could go either way, AD Khawaja is likely to leave simply because this tug of war cannot continue. Indeed, when he was on ‘forced leave’, the IG repeatedly asked the Sindh government to post someone else in his place, so he did not have to return. The petition against forced leave is likely to be disposed off, since the IG is back in office, unless some surprising development takes place.
indh IG Ghulam Hyder Jamali was sacked in March over illegal appointments to the police force
The context
First of all, this entire picture has to be viewed against the backdrop of 2017 being a campaign year ahead of the general elections due 2018. The Sindh government will want a flexible and submissive IG; and AD Khawaja is miserably lacking on both fronts. In fact, his very appointment flew in the face of the Sindh government’s power as he was named by the prime minister in March after the Supreme Court removed its man of choice, IG Ghulam Hyder Jamali. Jamali was sacked after admitting that 5,000 out of the 12,000 appointments made in the Sindh Police were illegal.
It did not help that after AD Khawaja assumed office, he went on to make decisions that did not sit well with those in power. (In Sindh everyone knows it is a duo of an influential sibling and a frontman, who was the subject of the state’s interest of late).
And so, despite being a ‘son of the soil’, AD Khawaja did not come to be IG with the blessings of the Sindh government; the federal government and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari are said to have played some role in his posting.
SSP Malir Rao Anwar was replaced by Mohammad Farooq
Running up to ‘forced leave’
There is a series of events which led the Sindh government to send IG AD Khawaja on forced leave.
It all started when Khawaja ordered an inquiry into allegations of serious financial misappropriation against the former SSP of Mirpurkhas, SP Usman Ghani. The inquiry angered the frontman, who is a close aide and business partner of the province’s most important decision-making persona.
Next, AD Khawaja transferred former SSP South Dr Muhammad Farooq on the orders of a court in a case pertaining to the kidnapping of the Sindh High Court justice’s son from Clifton. This also dismayed the frontman, as Dr Farooq is also considered to be close to him. The IG wanted to replace Farooq with SSP Javed Akbar Riaz, but the frontman furiously resisted this and agreed to posting Saqib Ismail Memon. (Since Memon has been recently promoted to DIG, however, the office of the SSP South will again fall vacant and jockeying for this posting will begin anew.)
The seizure of a caché of arms and ammunition believed to belong to Nisar Morai, a Pakistan Peoples Party leader, in Clifton also brought more trouble for AD Khawaja. Morai is currently in custody on charges of terror financing and money laundering.
AD Khawaja ensured that an FIR was registered but the police stated that the arms and ammunition were found in a garbage dump. They were, however, found from one of the many houses of the frontman.
And last but not least was the Badin incident which resulted in a hotly worded telephone conversation between the frontman and AD Khawaja, in which Khawaja reportedly reminded him: “I may be the son of a poor man, but at the moment I am the IG of Sindh province.” This trouble concerned sugarcane crushing in Badin. The SSP of Badin, Qayoom Pitafi, was supposed to make all the sugarcane growers there sell their produce to sugar mills belonging to the frontman and the most important person at a controlled price. When AD Khawaja found out about what Pitafi was doing, he called him up and scolded him.
After the Badin episode, the Sindh government decided that AD Khawaja could no longer remain the IG Sindh. The ‘power duo’ was already at odds with Khawaja for depriving them of what is traditionally considered a slice of the pie while handing out political appointments in police recruitment. AD Khawaja was also ‘difficult’ when it came to the procurement of certain equipment.
It started to systematically undo his decisions. It removed the SSP of Sanghar, one of the few posting the IG had made himself, and replaced him with a flexible SSP as by-elections are due soon in the district. The Sindh government also replaced another of AD Khawaja’s choices, SSP Javed Akbar Riaz, with SP Rao Anwar (Anwar Ahmed Khan) to SSP Malir district. SSP Riaz has the unique distinction of having the longest tenure as SSP Malir—a total of three months and 17 days—the longest compared to all other SSPs posted there beside Rao Anwar. Rao Anwar has been there for three years, three months and 22 days in four different stints starting 2011. The nine officers who came in the middle did not stay for more than a month or so each time.
AD’s decisions
If you ask even the lowliest of constables, he will probably tell you that this was the first time, under AD Khawaja’s watch in October 2016, that people were recruited on merit to the police force in Sindh. Twelve thousand people have been inducted in a transparent manner and the PPP government has not been able to induct its men. The recruitment was done through the National Testing System for the first time in Sindh to ensure it took place on merit.
People who are privy to these developments say transparent hiring in the police was unimaginable in the past. And overseeing this is perhaps the biggest dent AD Khawaja has inflicted on the ruling PPP government.
AD Khawaja also oversaw the improvement and funding of police training schools, the appointment of good officers there and addition of visiting faculty. He raised the compensation and benefits for martyred policemen’s families. He made procurement procedures more transparent by involving third parties.
AD Khawaja was able to push through these changes, but he was not allowed to bring in his own team. When he assumed charge of his post about nine months back, he gave a list of officers he did not want and a list of officers he wanted in Sindh. None of the two lists were honoured by the government; only two or three officers were brought back into the Sindh police.
Even before taking charge, AD Khawaja knew that his tenure will not be smooth sailing and he was unlikely to last. The question was, should he still try to improve his department despite the limitations? Perhaps he did.
The writer is a Pakistan correspondent with a foreign news agency and can be reached at syedraza.hassan@gmail.com
Clarification
This is apropos “Allah Dino’s burden” (TFT Jan 13-Jan 19) that appeared in this space, by Syed Hassan Raza. I am writing to state that I am not “a front man” and yes, I was the victim of an intimidation attempt recently. I know Usman Siddiqui but I am unaware of any inquiry etc. as I have been out of the country since May 2015, and I am not a business partner of anyone. In all my businesses, only my sons are my partners. The Dr Farooq segment in the story is also imaginary—three inquiries have cleared Dr Farooq, the last one by the Establishment Division. So, the IG has played a partisan role in suspending him and not the DIG on whose watch the Chief Justice’s son was kidnapped. Regarding the Badin incident, we at Khoski Sugar Mills finance needy sugarcane growers and the loan is repaid over two years. It was found that certain growers were supplying cane to Army Welfare and Mirza Sugar Mills which was theft. Khoski Sugar Mills approached the DC Badin with complete documentation and requested his help in stopping this criminal theft, which was done. When Army Welfare, and particularly Mirza Sugar Mills stopped getting stolen cane, Hasnain Mirza asked the IG to take action. All the above can be verified from DC Badin.
