The Sindh cabinet on Thursday discussed rules for the recruitment of senior police officers at the provincial level and to create a provincial police cadre, a release at the end of the meeting said.
Only the Inspector General of Police (IGP) would be from the PSP cadre.The move comes amid a dispute between the federal and Sindh governments over the transfer and posting of senior police officers and bureaucrats.
Earlier this year, the federal government transferred several senior police officers and bureaucrats out of the Sindh province citing the rotation policy that prohibits officers serving more than 10 years in a given province.
The Sindh government opposed the orders and was involved in a tug of war, but the federal government got its way.Currently, police officers above the rank of DSP are drawn from the PSP cadre. The federal government assigns them to a province and the provincial government can post them anywhere in the province. They also receive orders from the provincial government via the IGP.Setting up a provincial police cadre amounts to upsetting the conventions.
However, the Sindh cabinet on Thursday was told that “the Constitution and the PSP Rules 1985 did not bar the provincial government from making the subject recruitment rules nor do they suggest any concurrence from the federal government,” a statement from the Chief Minister House said.“The matter of policing or police service is not included in the federal legislative list,” it added.The Sindh cabinet meeting, presided over by Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah, has formed a committee over the issue.
The government plans to fill all of the positions from SP to Additional Inspector General of Police (IGP) (BS-21) through the proposed provincial cadre. The SP would be appointed “by promotion from amongst the Prosecuting Deputy Superintendents of Police (BS-17) having at least five-year service as such on seniority-cum-fitness basis.”
According to the proposal, after notifying the proposed rules, the eligible officers in the rank of SP(BS-18) may be promoted against the posts of SSP/AIGP (BS-19) in Sindh Police replacing the PSP officers in this rank /posts and when these Sindh Police Service officers become eligible for BS-20 (DIGP) the same may be promoted as per rules replacing the officers of PSP.
The cabinet after thorough discussion decided to constitute a committee under Energy Minister Imtiaz Shaikh and comprising Industries Minister Ikramullah Dharejo, Advisor law Murtaza Wahab, Advocate General, Chief Secretary, and ACS Home to examine the proposed rules and consider the constitutional provisions and present their report within a month.
