‘Karachi incident’

What could have snowballed into a serious security crisis in the province of Sindh was averted by the timely intervention of the Chief of the Army Staff, General Qamar Javed Bajwa. The Sindh police chief and dozens of his subordinate officers down to the level of SHO and ASI had applied for a 60-day leave en masse in the wake of the ‘Karachi incident’ — an event in the wee hours of October 19 that led to the police high command being allegedly forced to register a case against Captain (retd) Muhammad Safdar and his subsequent arrest from his hotel room in Karachi in the presence of his wife, PML-N vice-president Maryam Nawaz.

However, in the wake of the Army Chief directing the Karachi Corps Commander to “immediately inquire into the circumstances to determine the facts and report back as soon as possible”, the Sindh police chief, Mushtaq Mahar, decided to defer his own leave and ordered his officers to set aside their leave applications for 10 days “in the larger national interest”. For a couple of hours after Mahar and dozens of his top officers relinquishing charge while feeling “demoralised and shocked”, the province was left unguarded, with routine police patrols suspended and security duties at many sensitive places withdrawn, thus threatening a serious security crisis.

Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah has also ordered a separate inquiry into the incident and assured the top brass of the provincial police that his government will not let them be demoralised under any condition. Indeed, there is need to investigate the incident thoroughly and fix responsibility to ensure institutional integrity of the police which is our first line of defence. There is no doubt that the police force has rendered great sacrifices in the war on terror and played a pivotal role in the success of the Karachi Operation against criminals in conjunction with the paramilitary Rangers. There is need to restore the dignity of the police and lift their morale — no matter whatever it takes. There should be no compromise on the rule of law as well as the independence and autonomy of state institutions.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 22^nd, 2020.

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