After Balochistan, Sindh asks for bulletproof vehicles rejected by KP

The Sindh government has formally requested the federal government to transfer armoured vehicles turned down by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa administration, becoming the second province after Balochistan to do so.

In a letter addressed to the Interior Ministry, Sindh Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Muhammad Iqbal Memon said the province urgently required bulletproof vehicles due to the “critical security environment” and threats to foreign nationals, particularly Chinese citizens and visiting dignitaries.

“It is requested that these bulletproof vehicles may kindly be allocated to the Government of Sindh for deployment under the Home Department,” the letter stated. “The vehicles will be used exclusively for official security duties and will be maintained and operated under strict departmental control.”

The request follows an earlier move by Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti, who appealed to the interior minister to transfer the same armoured vehicles to his province after KP refused to accept them. The interior ministry, led by Mohsin Naqvi, subsequently reallocated the vehicles to Balochistan.

The controversy began earlier this week when KP Chief Minister Sohail Afridi rejected the vehicles, calling them “defective and old” and criticising what he described as the federal government’s “flawed policy” on counterterrorism. Afridi claimed that Islamabad had denied KP both its due funds under the war on terror and its “constitutional rights.”