VIP movement: New top cop transfers DIGs

IG Wajid Durrani tells CM that target killings have gone down.

KARACHI:

The newly appointed Inspector General of Police Wajid Durrani has shaken up the Sindh police by reshuffling three deputy inspectors general. More movement is expected at the senior superintendent of police and lower levels.

The decision was made at a meeting presided over by Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah and a notification was issued by the Sindh government’s services and general administration department.

According to the order, Imran Yaqoob has been posted as the DIG West, Akram Naeem DIG East, Shaukat Shah DIG South, Shabeer Sheikh Additional Inspector General (AIG) for the Crime Investigation Department, Falak Khursheed AIG Sindh, Sultan Khwaja DIG Sindh Reserve Police, Majeed Dasti DIG headquarters, Tahir Naveed DIG Commandant Shahdadkot and Ghulam Haider Jamali DIG Mirpurkhas. Iqbal Mehmood and Ghulam Nabi Memon have been made officers on special duty (OSD).

Despite this massive reshuffling, former IG Sindh Fayyaz Leghari described it as a matter of routine. “There were a few posts lying vacant, such as the DIG headquarters and AIG CID posts, that had to be filled,” he said.

Leghari himself is waiting for a new assignment from the establishment after the Supreme Court order removing him in the Sarfraz Shah case.

A slightly different perspective was offered by another former IG, Afzal Shigri, who said that although he never made any massive transfers during his tenure, Wajid Durrani, who has served in the Sindh police force before and knows many officers from the province during his previous posting, may have wanted to set up his own team. “Everybody has their own way of going about it and there’s nothing wrong with that,” he said.

He added with caution that according to Police Order 2002, the tenure of a police officer was set at a minimum of three years. “I hope the new IG hasn’t violated that rule,” he said.

The question is whether these transfers will have an effect on ongoing cases. Senior officers such as the former DIG East Sultan Khwaja were overlooking investigations into several high-profile cases, including the killing of a civilian, Sarfraz Shah, and the PNS Mehran terrorist attack. Shigri explained, however, that the prime responsibility of investigations falls on the shoulders of lower level officers such as deputy superintendents and investigation officers, even if it is said that a DIG is directly supervising them. “Posts such as SSP and DIG have a supervisory role, so I don’t think this would necessarily make a huge difference in an investigation,” he said.

Although Memon has been made an OSD, sources say that he is expected to replace the current Joint Directorate Intelligence Bureau, Sindh within a month.

Additionally, at the meeting with the CM, the government decided to reserve 300 police officers and law-enforcement personnel to be deployed at all city zones to control the law and order situation. The IGP said that target killings had sharply decreased. “Only 13 cases of target killings were reported during June.” The police foiled two bomb blast attempts and 148 accused target killers were arrested and 273 cases were tracked down during the year 2010-2011.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 1^st, 2011.

Correction: The caption for the picture in this story had previously read as IG Sindh Wajid Durrani telling the Chief Minister that target killings had gone down. This is incorrect, the picture shows former Sindh IG Fayyaz Leghari, not Wajid Durrani. The error is regretted.