Ghani irked by recalling of senior policemen

Sindh Information and Labour Minister Saeed Ghani accused the federal government of disrupting law and order by recalling high-ranking police officials of the DIG level to Islamabad without consulting the chief minister.

Talking to the media at the Sindh Assembly building on Friday, the minister lamented the decision of posting senior police officials out of the province at the behest of opposition legislators in the Sindh Assembly. He claimed the CM had been kept in dark over the issue.

He said that relevant rules make it binding upon the federal government that the prime minister or his representatives should consult the CM or his representative before ordering the transfer of senior bureaucrats and police officials.

He said that an ill-advised rotation policy had been adopted by the present rulers in 2020 of not consulting the provinces. "This is being used as a pretext to transfer senior police officials out of Sindh without consulting the CM."

The information minister said that the Sindh government required services of up to 22 senior police officials to maintain law and order in the province, but 12 of them had been recalled by the Centre without consulting the provincial administration.

He said that seven DIGs posted in the province had been recalled recently, while five were transferred out of the province a few weeks earlier.

He lamented the situation that the centre had been taking such ill-advised decisions in an autocratic manner at the behest of certain "ineligible and incompetent" opposition MPAs in the province.

Ghani said the Centre had adopted an inappropriate method to deal with provinces as it couldn't act as a regulator in the case of any provincial government.

He said the centre couldn't interfere in the affairs of the province in such a sheer dictatorial manner as a provincial government had come into power after getting votes from people while it also generated revenue for the federation.

Read More: PTI lawmakers whisk away disgruntled MPA from Sindh Assembly

He told media persons that the Sindh government required the services of 48 more officials from the Centre for the governance and administration of the province.

He said the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and its allies in the Centre had bulldozed the case of Sindh based on controversial census results. The minister continued that the federal government and its allied parties, including the Grand Democratic Alliance and Muttahida Quami Movement, had voted in the joint sitting of the parliament in favour of granting an "NRO to Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav".

He expressed serious concern that basic necessities of life including wheat flour, sugar, electricity, natural gas, and medicines, were out of the reach of the general public due to the massive increase in their prices.

To a question, the Sindh Information Minister told media persons that police had lodged criminal cases in the killings of Nazim Jokhio and Fahmida Siyal in accordance with the desire of the complainants of the two incidents. He said the Sindh government had supported the bereaved family of Nazim Jokhio as the victim's family had been provided security.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 20^th, 2021.