KARACHI - Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Thursday described the Sindh Police as one of the best forces in the world in the fight against terrorism, target killers and extortionists.

“The peace has not returned, but it has taken lives of our police, Rangers and Pakistan Army personnel. I salute the martyrs and pay rich tribute to their families,” Shah said while addressing 40th batch of the 760th police passing out parade at Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Elite Police Training Centre. The ceremony was attended by Sindh Police Inspector General Dr Kaleem Imam, Additional IG Dr Aftab Pathan, Commandant of Training Centre Tanveer Odho and other concerned police officers.

The chief minister said that morale of the Sindh Police was down when the PPP government had taken over in 2008. “The reasons behind low morale were targeted killings of policemen who had participated in an operation cleanup in Karachi.

The salary structure of Sindh police was lower than the police force of other provinces while no solid compensation system for the families of the martyrs was present in the province. As a result, morale of the police was very low. He said the provincial government had adopted a holistic approach to address the issues. He said that recruitments in police department were purely made on merit, best training courses were designed for their capacity building, their salary was increased, compensation for martyrs was increased, their health and educational services were improved and they were equipped with the best weapons. “Today our police force is the best in Pakistan and could be compared with any police force in the world,” he said.

“Sindh police is the best in the world in the sense that it has fought bravely against terrorists, target killers, extortionists in the city and 2200 of them embraced martyrdom,” he said and added, “I salute them and their families. We have not left the families of the martyrs alone but we are providing them salaries regularly apart from paying them compensation,” he said.

The chief minister hoped that the batch of 760 policemen, including 148 women, passing out today would be the best addition in the police force. “I have witnessed their abilities they demonstrated in their passing out programme – they are superb and well trained and I am sure they would deliver in the field,” he said.

“This training centr was established during 90s and so far it has produced a force of 50,000 policemen,” he said and vowed to strengthen it further with auditorium and other required facilities. He also said that he would consider the proposal of establishing a Police Cadet College. CM Shah also said that he was favorably considering the proposal of up gradation of constables from grade BPS-5 to 7, Head constables from BPS B-7 to 9 and ASI from grade B-7 to 11.

The passing out policemen demonstrated their training skill and abilities to curb crime and handle sensitive situation. They gave guard of honour when the chief minister reached at the centre.

The chief minister distributed certificates, medals and awards to the position holders of the training course. 

IG Police and Commandant Training Center Taveer Odho also spoke on the occasion.