Top gun: Race for next IG Sindh picks up momentum

Two main contenders rise as Wajid Durrani’s departure becomes imminent.

KARACHI:

As the current Inspector General of Police, Wajid Durrani, prepares to move on to bigger things, senior police officers have begun to vie for the soon-to-be vacant seat.

Durrani is expected to leave office and be assigned as the Intelligence Bureau’s director-general. The talk within the police department is that there are two main contenders for the post. The first is the former IG, Fayyaz Leghari, who was unceremoniously removed during the case of Sarfaraz Shah’s extrajudicial murder.

Even though the footage of the incident clearly showed that only Rangers were involved, Leghari was removed by the Supreme Court as it felt that the inquiry may be influenced. When the case was laid to rest, and the Rangers personnel convicted, Leghari is on the record as saying that he hoped that he too would be reinstated as IGP Sindh the same way Ejaz Chaudhry was given back his post as Rangers Sindh director-general.

However, it is rumoured that, despite his best efforts, Leghari’s chances remain slim. In fact, when Leghari was contacted, he was on the defensive. “It is the government’s prerogative to assign anyone as IG,” he told The Express Tribune. “I cannot comment whether I deserve the slot,” he replied when asked whether he still felt that he too should be reinstated like the Rangers DG. He did not even comment when asked about Ejaz Chaudhry’s promotion as lieutenant general, while his fate remains in limbo.

The favourite for the next IG is the current Additional IG Traffic, Mushtaq Shah. Officials say his chances are “more than 90 per cent”.

Shah is an experienced police officer who joined the force in the year 1980. He has been the Crime Investigation Department Deputy Inspector General, DIG Karachi operations twice in 1998 and 2004. He is reputed as an officer familiar not only with the province and city’s crime and law and order problems, but also as someone who understands the psyche of political and religious parties.

In his 30-year career, he has been posted at senior positions in Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa provinces. He still has two more years to go before retirement.

Shah told The Express Tribune that he too has “heard the rumours” of him becoming the next IG, but nothing can be said for sure until the official notification which is expected in a couple of days.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 7^th, 2011.