KARACHI, April 28: The Sindh government has decided to withdraw police guards from high-flying VIPs in an attempt to overcome a shortage of manpower.

This was disclosed by the Adviser to the Chief Minister on Home Affairs, Wasim Akhtar, at a press conference on Saturday afternoon.

Recent news reports said that at least 6,000 members of the 29,000-strong police force in Karachi employed over a 100 well-maintained mobile vans to escort VIPs, including senior police officials, judges, politicians and religious leaders.

Accompanied by acting Inspector-General of Police Niaz Siddiqui, Mr Akhtar said the police department suffered from a shortage of equipment and manpower and was doing its utmost to make do with the available resources.

He said that the manpower issue could be resolved to a certain extent if the police officials discharging security duties could be withdrawn.

Indicating that charity begins at home, Mr Akhtar said police guards would be first withdrawn from senior police officials and deployed at police stations across the city.

This will not only boost the strength of police at police stations but will also help the law-enforcement agencies bring down overall criminal activities by strict monitoring.

He said: This is the first step towards improving the things and we are taking this measure from our own home ie the police department.

Later, police guards would also be withdrawn from notables, politicians, religious leaders and other individuals. Besides, the misuse of police vehicles has also come into our notice and steps will be taken to utilise the vehicles for improving the security of the people.

When asked why reduction had taken place in the incidents of carjacking, mobile phone snatching, robberies and kidnappings for ransom, the adviser said: The police are doing their best by utilising the available limited resources and we have arrested many gangs of criminals besides recovering 60 per cent of stolen vehicles which have been handed back to their owners.

Comparing the Sindh police to the Punjab police, he said the strength of the latter was 160,000 and their budget was over Rs33 billion while the total strength of the Sindh police was 93,000 and their budget was only Rs15 billion.

The government is working on improving the salary structure of the police and a case would be presented to the chief minister in this regard, he added.

Mr Akhtar said the Sindh Police had 5,000 vacancies and 2,000 posts were vacant in the Karachi police alone. He said recruitment against available vacancies would soon begin.

He parried questions on the appointment of the Sindh IG and said: It is in the process.

Commenting on the decision to disband the Lyari Task Force, he said the LTF had completed its basic task and was therefore not needed. The town police were capable of handling the crime situation in Lyari, he added.

In reply to questions on the report of the Chief Minister's inspection team on the Police's Purchase Committee, he said that the report had been prepared.

As soon as the report was received, action would be taken accordingly on its recommendations, he promised.