DADU: Inspector General of Sindh Police Riffat Mukhtar Raja has said that of 19,236 polling stations across the province 4,407 are ‘highly sensitive’, 5,600 are ‘sensitive’ and 6,000 are deemed ‘normal’.

He said that eight police officials each would be posted at the ‘highly sensitive’ polling stations and six each at the ‘sensitive’ ones. The Ministry of Interior and the Election Commission of Pakistan had been informed about the estimated number of police personnel required for election duties and if the number of ‘sensitive’ polling stations rose, so would the law-enforcers, he said.

The IGP was talking to journalists after inaugurating the All-Pakistan Tariq Baloch T20 Tournament at Kotri SITE cricket ground late on Thursday night.

He said that no such incident had occurred so far, which might threaten law and order conditions and cause change in the status of polling stations.

Says department runs short of 10,000 personnel to ensure proper security during polling

He said that it was the responsibility of the ECP to conduct elections and “we’ll be there only to provide security to the process”. A total of 150,000 police personnel were to be deployed but “we have a shortage of 10,000 men”, he said.

He said that police were combating terrorists and preempting their activities in Sindh in cooperation with other law enforcement agencies. Sindh’s rugged mountainous area was difficult to police due to harsh weather conditions and unfriendly terrain, while riverine area remained under water for four to six months which made the land swampy when it receded, he said.

He said that bandits were well aware of the changing conditions of the land and were used to weather conditions in the riverine area but police found it difficult to operate in there. The area needed to have roads and bridges so that it did not remain a no-go area, he said.

The IGP said that effective measures were being taken to prevent incidents of kidnapping. No ‘Safe City’ project had been completed in any city of the province and even in a metropolis like Karachi, work on the Safe City remained unfinished, he said, urging civil society to play its role in this regard. There were also some technical issues hampering the project, he said.

He said that it was the most difficult task to set up an industry in Pakistan and appreciated industrialists for providing jobs to thousands of people.

He advised industrialists to prepare a report about the police personnel required for maintaining law and order in industrial zone in Jamshoro, number of check-posts and police stations and he would try to have the report approved by the upcoming elected government.

He said that new recruitment of police across the province would help end shortage of law-enforcers and personnel of special security unit too would be sent back to their districts.

He said that changes were being made in traffic system in Sindh under which the job of challanning vehicles and e-ticketing could be outsourced. “This is the first time I have visited a chamber in Sindh and am so happy to meet industrialists,” he said.

Later, the IGP went to the office of Jamshoro Chamber of Commerce and Industry where he met manufacturers and traders, listened to their problems and issued orders to resolve them.

The industrialists presented Sindhi caps and gifts to the IGP, Hyderabad Range DIG Tariq Razzak Dharijo, Jamshoro SSP Muhammad Tariq Nawaz and Hyderabad SSP Amjad Ahmed Sheikh.

Published in Dawn, January 13th, 2024