THE PPP’s recent agreement to the appointment of a new inspector general of police for Sindh may signify a turning point in the party’s thinking. Mr A.D. Khawaja, the new inspector general of police, is generally well regarded as an honest officer with the ability to resist pressure. Although, whenever I was associated with the Sindh government I have always found myself in one disagreement or the other with him, he is one of the almost extinct breed of senior police officers in Sindh who has so far in his career been committed to upholding the law as far as possible.

However, it is not the new inspector general’s person but what his appointment signifies that is of note.

His appointment may show an emerging understanding at Sindh’s ruling party level that a more independent and effective police may be an asset. The fact that the current home minister, Mr Sohail Siyal, played an instrumental role in the appointment would indicate that the appointment has the full support of the political wing of the party in Sindh within which Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah and MNA Faryal Talpur hold the most influence.

The appointment has an added significance insofar as it is the first visible administrative act of the Sindh government which genuinely indicates to the permanent establishment of Pakistan that the party is willing to work with it on key administrative objectives.

The history of the PPP regarding management and administration is peculiar. It has traditionally demonstrated belief in a political paradigm borrowed from its socialist tradition which demands that officials of the government should be subordinate to the party’s political cadre. Such subordination was the essence of the communist administrations introduced in countries like Russia and China after their respective revolutions. In these countries, the Marxist view that the law was a socioeconomic mechanism to keep the masses poor and the means of production securely in the hands of the rich was accepted as revolutionary gospel.