Fighting terror: Increase payout for fallen cops, Zardari tells Sindh

PPP co-chairman distributes compensation cheques each worth Rs2 million at ceremony

KARACHI: Former president and the co-chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Asif Ali Zardari on Wednesday asked the Sindh government to raise the compensation given to the families of martyred police officers from Rs2 million to Rs10 million.

Speaking at a ceremony organised by the Sindh Police Department to hand out compensation cheques to the families of 61 police officers martyred in the line of duty, he also called upon the Sindh government to work out an agreement with the Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology (Szabist) to impart free education to the children of martyred police officers.

“A person’s life is precious and cannot be compensated through cash… It is a big blow to any family to lose its main breadwinner,” Zardari said. “It is for this reason that I ask the Sindh government to set up a police welfare organisation headed by a female senior superintendent of police,” he added.



The former president said the Sindh government would also provide jobs and residential plots to the heirs of martyred police officers.

Noting that defining who constituted an heir was major obstacle in disposing of compensation cases, he asked the Sindh chief secretary to evolve an effective mechanism to register the heirs of government employees in advance. He also asked the Sindh government to introduce an insurance policy for government employees.

“I know what martyrdom is because I myself belong to a family of martyrs,” the former president added.

The PPP co-chairman distributed 61 compensation cheques, each worth Rs2 million, among the heirs of martyred police officers at the ceremony. He also distributed keys of residential apartments among serving police officers.

The former president, meanwhile, said his party will not allow anyone to impose a ‘self-proclaimed idea of Sharia’ in the country.  “We are waging an ideological war against the menace of terrorism,” Zardari said. “We will fight against it to the last drop of blood,” he vowed.

Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah said the Sindh Police was in bad shape before the PPP government’s tenure, which led to deteriorating law and order.  He said his government had enhanced the budget of the police allowing the force to equip itself with the latest equipment and training. “We did this to raise the morale of the police force,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 15^th, 2015.