MQM unhappy over police recruitment in Karachi

www.thefridaytimes.com

The government’s move to seek fresh recruitment in Sindh police has become a contentious political issue, as the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) believes the recruitment policy is geared towards discriminating against candidates suspected of supporting the ethnic-based party.

“The rules and conditions they [police officials] have set for recruitment are so rigid and difficult that most Karachi candidates would fail to meet those criteria,” ex-senator and deputy convener of the MQM’s Coordination Committee, Aftab Shaikh, told TFT.

The most controversial requirement for recruitment is said to be the standard of average height for the policeman. At present, the standard height is 5ft 7inches, which exceeds the average height of Karachiites, especially those belonging to the Mohajir community.

“Our average height is not more than 5ft 5inches. We believe such standards are being set only to keep the Mohajir youth out of police service and this is being done because the majority of them support the MQM,” Aftab Shaikh said.

This is not the first time the MQM has objected to the issue of height. It took the issue to the national assembly during the previous Nawaz Sharif government, forcing the government to set up an in-house committee to review the existing height standards and review them in accordance with the average height of populations in the four federating units. The matter was still being considered by the committee when the military coup ousted Nawaz Sharif.

Kunwar Khalid Younus, a former MQM MNA and son of a former DIG Kunwar Younus Ali Khan, believes the requirements for the recruitment in the police have deliberately been made difficult to deprive the local people from entering law enforcement. He said the average height was increased on the recommendation of a former DIG who came from the Punjab about 30 years ago and played an instrumental role in recruiting non-Karachiites into the force.

Interestingly, the standard for height was brought down in 1990 when the MQM was a partner in the Sindh coalition headed by Jam Sadiq Ali, allowing a number of Karachi youths to enter the police service.

However, after the change in the government, many of those recruits were cashiered for being political spoils. Presently, the percentage of policemen belonging to Karachi is minuscule.

Kunwar Younus said the MQM has confirmed reports that the height issue is pegged to a deliberate policy of discouraging Karachiites from joining the police.

“A number of candidates have complained that they were discouraged from being recruited on the charge that they were MQM supporters. Most were not even remotely linked to the MQM,” he told TFT.

The recruitments in Karachi were supervised by the five SSPs and TFT saw long queues of candidates outside the five district headquarters. There were complaints that every candidate was asked by low-ranking policemen to pay some money. Those who paid up were facilitated through the process of submission of applications.

A senior police official referring to General Pervez Musharraf’s visit to the Central Police Office told TFT that the general had clearly told the IGP Sindh to prefer Karachiites for new recruitments.

“He [general] clearly said that most of the problems in Karachi might be settled by encouraging Karachiites to join the police,” this officer told TFT.

IGP Sindh, Kamal Shah, refutes there is a policy to discourage Karachiites from entering the police service. “In fact, we are trying to encourage them to join the service so we can have a majority of Karachiites as law enforcers,” he told TFT.

About the height issue Shah said that it was a pre-requisite as per past practice. “There are suggestions to review it and the government has powers to make changes,” he said, adding: “Until that is done, we have to follow the rules.”

While senior officials deny there is any policy to discourage Mohajir youth from joining police service, insiders say there is much resistance to infusion of Mohajir youth at least among the provincial cadres of the service, most of whom are non-Mohajir.

“These police officers still recall the 1990 recruitments when urban youth was inducted into the service and most of them were found to be supporters of the MQM,” says a source.

Some police officers believe a large number of those recruits became informers for the MQM and hindered many campaigns against MQM extremists when the government cracked down on the party. “Some of them also helped the party perpetrate violence during the mid-90s,” said an insider.

Meanwhile, a number of police officials who took active part in the operation against the MQM during Ms Bhutto’s government have reemerged and may be posted to sensitive places now that the government has decided to crack down on sectarian and jihadi groups.

“These [police] officials wield great influence among their subordinates and while they can be used by the government for strong-arm tactics, they are also likely to resist the infusion of Karachi youth into the service.

Ex-senator Aftab Shaikh told TFT these police officials are being posted to Karachi and other urban centres of Sindh on the recommendation of a former DIG Karachi who is at present one of top police officials in the country.

“They [SHOs] have been brought in to victimise our workers and supporters,” he said.

For their part, officials deny having any agenda against the MQM. “Some of these officers have long experience of handling terrorists and they are brought in to tackle the sectarian terrorists,” a top official told TFT.