Saud Mirza appointed police chief

The grade 21 officer has a degree in police studies from the University of Exeter.

KARACHI:

Saud Mirza of the Crime Investigation Department (CID) takes charge as Karachi’s new chief of police today.

The senior Pakistan Police Services officer has served as Deputy Inspector-General (DIG) at the CID, DIG Headquarters and DPO for Hyderabad and Sukkur. Meanwhile, officials speculate that DIG South Iqbal Mehmood and DIG Falak Khursheed are possible replacements for Mirza’s previous position, AIG at the CID.

Mirza joined the police on March 23, 1979 and is currently a grade 21 officer. He was made CID Additional IG (Sindh) on March 10, 2010. After his intermediate from Government College in 1971 and his bachelor’s from the same institution in 1975, he went on to do a master’s in public administration from Punjab University and another in police studies from the University of Exeter, UK.

Mirza has been commanding the CID police who have busted several terrorist networks, including those of locally banned outfits, the Taliban and al Qaeda, under his supervision.

The CCPO’s post was vacant since February 18 when Fayyaz Leghari left it to become the Sindh IGP. Officials say Mirza was in line for the CCPO post for a while. In the middle, Waseem Ahmed and then Fayyaz Leghari were given the job.

Mirza is known to be a man of “integrity”, “impeccable character” and relatively more brain than brawn, said a top Sindh bureaucrat who knows Mirza and has worked with Mirza’s wife, a high-ranking tax commissioner. There is scepticism among the police that he will be able to tackle target killings given that this issue can only be resolved if the political parties display the will.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 15^th, 2011.