Sindh Police await funds for last quarter

Due to the delay purchase of mobile locators, small weapons and cars has been put on hold

KARACHI: Sindh Police have still not received funds for the last quarter allocated to the department in the budget for 2018-19. Due to the delay in release of Rs540 million, the purchase of mobile locators, small weapons and cars has been put on hold.

After the Amal Umer case, in which a ten-year-old girl lost her life in crossfire, the Supreme Court had ordered to police to use small weapons. The delay in release of funds has made execution of the order difficult. Patrolling and operations in katcha areas in interior Sindh have also been affected due to non-availability of funds.



The fact that an additional Rs5 billion from the previous budget have yet to be released has exacerbated the situation. A total of Rs1 billion were approved for purchase of cars for Sindh Police of which only Rs20.8 million were released. A further Rs1 billion were reserved for weapons of which again, only Rs20.4 million were released.

Similarly, Rs1.031 billion had been allocated for purchase of uniforms of which only Rs400 million were released and Rs600 million has been reserved for the CCTV command and control system of which on Rs240 million were released. A payment of Rs65 million for the maintenance and repair of armoured vehicles is also still pending.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 11^th, 2019.