To deal with Karachi’s criminals, police opt for Serbian armoured vehicles

The News M. Waqar Bhatti Tuesday, September 17, 2013 Karachi Despite the Transparency International-Pakistan’s reservations, the Sindh police department has decided to overstep the rules and buy 20 Serbian Lazar II armoured fighting vehicles. An official told The News that the provincial police high-ups were extremely dissatisfied with the performance of the B-6 armoured personnel carriers built by the Heavy Mechanical Complex in Taxila. Therefore, the department has opted to go for the extremely potent Lazars of B-7 category that will cost Rs1.24 billion. The Sindh police will buy the vehicles in two phases. The police authorities have again sought permission from the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority to buy the Lazars as per Rule 16 (b) under emergency - citing the ongoing targeted operations against criminals in Karachi. The Lazar II is a multirole armoured vehicle manufactured by the Serbian state-run company Yugoimport SDPR. The company has supplied the vehicles to Kenya and Bangladesh. The Transparency International-Pakistan has sent a reminder to Sindh IGP Shahid Nadeem Baloch asking him to examine the rules before buying the vehicles without inviting open tenders – in violation of the Sindh Public Procurement Rules 2010. “If the Sindh police are procuring the vehicles from Serbia without inviting tenders, then the procurement is deemed to be declared mis-procurement under the rule 56 of the Sindh Public Procurement Rules 2010,” Transparency International-Pakistan Adviser Adil Gillani wrote in the reminder to the IGP dated September 14. Talking to The News, Gillani said the Transparency International-Pakistan was a member of the Sindh Public Procurement Regulatory Authority. “It is its [Transparency International-Pakistan’s] job to point out the lacunae in such procurements in which public money amounting to billions of rupees is involved,” he added. A potent weapon An official told The News that police logistics experts had visited Serbia a few months ago and on their return recommended the purchase of the multirole armoured vehicles for tackling gangsters and terrorists in Karachi and other parts of the province. “The criminals in the city are using armour-piercing weapons against police and that’s why these vehicles are needed.” The Lazar II is an 8x8 armoured personnel carrier based on the modifications of the concept and the technical solutions of the original Lazar vehicle. These modifications are carried on with the purpose to further harmonise the basic characteristics of the vehicle with contemporary international defence trends in the development of multirole armoured wheel-type vehicles. The concept of the first Lazar vehicle represented a combination of the characteristics of a mine resistant ambush-protected (MRAP) and MRAV (multirole armoured vehicle) vehicles, while the Lazar II is a derivative of the MRAV concept, courtesy of an independent suspension, which allows the platform to be customised for different roles. The concept provides for installation of different types of weapons of varying calibres on the turret depending on the purpose of the vehicle and the mission “Last year, we returned four armoured personnel carriers to the Heavy Mechanical Complex after we discovered that they were not offering protection to the personnel inside them against assault rifles and sniper rifles of larger calibres used by gangsters and terrorists,” the police official said. “These days, gangsters also use rocket-propelled grenades, rifle-grenades and improvised explosive devices.” Presently, the Sindh police have 79 armoured personnel carriers - 62 wheeled and 17 tracked. Around 30 are being used by Karachi, all of them of B-6 category protection level. These armoured personnel carriers offer protection against 7.62x51mm rounds of assault rifles, but ineffective against assault rifles of larger calibre. “The biggest threat to the law enforcement personnel in Karachi is the light machine guns of 12.7x108mm calibre,” the official said. He added that logistics experts had suggested that the Sindh police should procure armoured personnel carriers of B-7 category that could survive small to medium-level improvised explosive device attacks. “The Rs1.24 billion that would be spent for buying the vehicles will be provided from the Rs5 billion package announced by the provincial government for the purchase of weapons and equipment for police.” The official said the Sindh police had sought permission to buy the vehicles from the National Accountability Bureau and the Sindh Public Procurement Regulatory Authority. “The order for the Lazar II vehicles would be placed soon.” Despite the production of the local armoured personnel carriers, the Pakistan Army is reportedly also considering the procurement of Serbian Lazar II for fighting terrorists in the northern areas.