KARACHI: Some 1,200 ex-servicemen have joined the Sindh police with more than 1,000 to be deployed in the city alone in a move to enhance manpower of the law-enforcement agency amid growing security challenges and the ongoing targeted-operation in Karachi, it emerged on Wednesday.

A top official confirmed to Dawn the appointment of 1,200 retired soldiers of the armed forces in line with the August 2013 decision of the Sindh cabinet mainly for security duties in Karachi.

It is for the first time that the law-enforcement agency has recruited retired armed forces personnel for the post of constables.

“We have been allowed to hire a total of 2,000 retired personnel of the armed forces by the provincial government,” said the newly-appointed Sindh IG Iqbal Mahmood while speaking to Dawn . “So far, 1,200 have already been hired and the process for [hiring of] 800 [other constables] is on. Among the 1,200, 120 have been deployed in Khairpur and the rest of them will serve in Karachi.”

He was sure the move would help police in many ways, as the growing security challenges and ‘consistent policing efforts in Karachi’ required a much larger force than the existing one. The recruitment would also help ease pressure on the overburdened strength, he added.

“The benefit of hiring retired forces’ men is that they are already prepared to join the force with immediate effect. They just need to learn the basics before being inducted and that’s why this proposal was forwarded to cater to the immediate manpower need of the Sindh police,” added IG Mahmood.

The recent confirmation of retired soldiers’ hiring came weeks after the Sindh government lifted the ban on recruitment ‘only for the police’, allowing the provincial institution to hire some 7,000 constables on a proposal of the security administration.

Sources aware of the recent development said the retired soldiers would mainly be tasked with the security of sensitive installations allowing the authorities to withdraw the regular police from these places for policing. They argued that the fresh recruitment would help overcome the shortage of manpower to some extent.

“Apart from the hiring of 2,000 retired forces men, the process for the recruitment of 7,000 openings for constables has also been under way for the past few weeks in different districts of Sindh,” said an official citing details of the police recent plan. “Among them, 2,700 would be posted in Karachi and the rest would serve in different districts. The proposal was forwarded to the chief minister seeking his approval to relax the curbs so that people could be hired for the essential service. The chief minister finally approved the request last month.”

With threats ranging from militancy to targeted killings and street crimes to kidnapping for ransom, Karachi is battling organised criminal gangs for its more than 18 million inhabitants with just a little more than 29,000 policemen, a large number of whom are either protecting influential individuals and foreign missions, or are engaged in administration work within the department or serving on its specialised units.

The Sindh government had allocated Rs48 billion for law and order in its budget for the financial year 2013-14. While unveiling the provincial budget in June 2013, the chief minister had announced recruitment of 20,000 policemen who would be offered “high-quality rigorous training” to turn them into a “strong and professional work force”. However, the promise took more than eight months to honour, and still not exactly the same way.

“Now the two recruitment plans – 2,000 retired soldiers and 7,000 constables – would help Sindh police adding 9,000 men to the force within next few months. The sanctioned strength of Karachi police is 35,102 but it’s true that the policing in the city is being performed hardly by 29,000 personnel,” said the official.