Promising to deliver: Sindh Police takes away major chunk yet again

KARACHI: The Sindh Police once again gets to eat away a major chunk of provincial revenue with a promise to deliver better as the monetary allocation in budget for 2016-2017 has been increased by 17% to Rs74 billion.

This amount is basically 90% of what has been set aside for the Sindh home department, which also pays for the services of Rangers.

“The home department, including police, jails, Rangers and other security agencies, is the second largest department in terms of resource allocation with a share of 14.4% in total current revenue expenditure in the fiscal year 2016-2017,” Finance Minister Murad Ali Shah told the provincial assembly on Saturday. “The home department has been allocated Rs82.3 billion in the next fiscal year 2016-17 against the current fiscal year budget estimates of Rs70.8 billion, which was an increase of 16.2%. The budget for the Sindh police has been enhanced from Rs63.3 billion to Rs74 billion, showing an increase of 16.9%. The [annual development programme] ADP for the home department is pitched at Rs2 billion.”

Last year, the government had allocated Rs79.66 billion in the fiscal year 2015-2016 to meet the day-to-day expenses on public order and safety, depicting a 19.5% rise over the estimates from last year. Out of this figure, Rs61.84 billion was allocated for the Sindh police, Rs2.43 billion for the Rangers, Rs1.05 billion for the Frontier Constabulary and Rs1.52 billion for training and research.



This time, the government attempts to boost the morale of police officers as it has proposed raising compensation for those killed in the line of duty to Rs5 million - a substantial increase from the previous Rs2 million. Sindh police welfare and maintenance board will be formed and civilians will also be made part of it to ensure transparency.

“Our law enforcement personnel sacrifice their lives for the safety and security of the citizens,” said the finance mister. “Hence, the need was felt to actively work for their welfare. The compensation for police personnel who embrace shahadat [martyrdom] has been enhanced from Rs2 million to Rs5 million. Development of land that will be allotted to the heirs of the shaheed [martyrs] will be ensured. Further, recruitment of one child of the shaheed into government job will be made in accordance with the qualification.”

The Sindh government will further enhance the strength of the police force by creating 10,000 more jobs. These are in addition to the same number of hiring done in the outgoing year that also included inducting 2,000 retired soldiers.

To improve police operations, 20,000 more personnel will be recruited. Out of the 10,000 posts that were released during the current fiscal year 2015-2016, 2,000 were ex-servicemen for China-Pakistan Economic Corridor security, 6,000 for Karachi traffic police and 2,000 for the Rapid Response Force. For the next financial year, 10,000 new posts are being created. Out of these, 4,000 posts will be for Karachi range while 6,000 will be for Hyderabad, Larkana, Mirpurkhas, Shaheed Benazirabad, Sukkur and Information Technology (IT) Cadre.

Machinery and equipment including arms and ammunitions, armoured personnel carriers (APCs) and operational vehicles are also on the agenda to further improve the performance of the police. A sum of Rs5.2 billion has been allocated for procurement of physical assets - Rs2.5 billion for purchase of transport, Rs0.65 billion for purchase of machinery and Rs2billion for purchase of other assets, including arms and ammunitions. Meanwhile, Rs200 million have been allocated for the purchase and repair of the GSM locaters as they are a very important tool in conducting investigations.

Further, Rs2.5b will be allocated for the forensic science laboratory, which is the basic requirement of investigation and an explosive laboratory. Other civil armed forces have been allocated Rs1.2 billion.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 12^th, 2016.