SC rejects reports on police budget

Judges found discrepancies in statistics presented by police chief, finance secretary

KARACHI: Once again rejecting their reports, the Supreme Court (SC) ordered Sindh IG Ghulam Haider Jamali as well as the finance and home secretaries to submit complete details of the budgetary allocations made to the police force.

A three-member bench, headed by Justice Amir Hani Muslim, ordered them to submit the details personally at the SC Karachi registry on July 30. The bench was hearing a case regarding the withholding of funds meant for the investigation wing by IG Jamali and their disbursement to other wings. At the outset of the proceedings, Jamali, finance secretary Sohail Rajput and home secretary Mukhtar Soomro filed their replies in compliance with the court’s directives.

The judges pointed out that the compliance report filed by Jamali on the last date of the hearing had not disclosed the date on which the funds were disbursed. His report filed on Thursday also lacked the required details.

Rajput explained that the Sindh Police had requested a Rs90 billion allocation in the annual budget to meet its expenditure and for development schemes. Only Rs50 billion in funds were earmarked for the force.

He explained that Rs4.5 billion were meant for the police’s operational wing. For the investigation wing, a requisition of Rs316 million was made but the government allocated Rs140 million. The secretary claimed that apart from this the provincial government also provided discretionary funds worth Rs150 million to the inspector-general in the current fiscal year.

The judges found, however, discrepancies in the statistics presented by the police chief and finance secretary and inquired whether the matter should be referred to the National Accountability Bureau. The apex court rejected the reports submitted by the police chief as well as the finance and home secretaries. They ordered Jamali to provide the criteria by which he disburses funds under the heading “costs of investigation” to the police officers. He will also gather the number of criminal cases being investigated in different districts of Sindh, excluding Karachi, and the amounts disbursed to them with dates.

The IG has been directed to provide the dates on which he has disbursed the amounts for costs of investigation to the SSPs of different districts of Sindh police including Karachi. The finance secretary was ordered to provide the details of the amounts from the finance department.

Jamali was also directed to provide the details of the amounts that he had disbursed to the different investigation wings with the dates on which these amounts were disbursed and the details of the criminal cases under investigation and the amounts which were disbursed to each investigation officer for the cases.

Rajput was ordered to provide the date-wise details of the amounts, which were disbursed either under the directions of the IG or otherwise. Additionally, the finance department will provide the actual charged budget of the police and supplementary demands raised either directly or indirectly from the police officers or from the IG and their dates of disbursement in the year 2014-15.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 24^th, 2015.