Shahid hayat khan biography

Omar Shahid Hamid writes about the life and times of former Karachi police chief Shahid Hayat Khan, a Pashtun, who came to Karachi in the 1990s and as a police officer, emerged as a hero that the city needed in its dark days of unrest and violence.

Shahid Hayat Khan joined the Police Service of Pakistan on 19th October 1991, as part of the 19th CTP.

Four days from now, he would have completed 28 years of service. As a young officer, he served in Punjab and in UN missions, before he and his entire batch were sent to Karachi in 1995.

At the time, the city was a war zone.

The MQM had declared war against the state and the lives of 12 million people were in the hands of a vodka-Pakola swigging person sitting in an office situated above a convenience store and a taxi stand in North London. Citizens were murdered on a whim by Kalashnikov-toting MQM militants, bodies were found in gunny sacks on the roads everyday, and policemen were warned not to travel to their duty posts in u