The Supreme Court of Pakistan. PHOTO: AFP
KARACHI: The Supreme Court (SC) observed on Friday that the level of corruption in the Sindh police had increased by up to threefold since the incumbent inspector-general, Ghulam Haider Jamali, took charge of the force.
The apex court threw out the second consecutive report submitted by the top cop on the distribution of the funds provided by the provincial government to strengthen its investigation wing.
A three-member bench, headed by Justice Amir Hani Muslim, was hearing an application regarding the withholding of funds meant for the police's investigation wing. Sindh Police IG Ghulam Haider Jamali and Finance AIG Javed Mehar appeared in the court to answer the queries.
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IG Jamali submitted a second report on the disbursement of the funds allocated by the government. Earlier, the bench had rejected the IG's first report and ordered him to file a new one. The bench members grew visibly irritated when they found that neither the Finance AIG nor IG Jamali had provided the requisite details.
"Tentatively, we picked out one district of Hyderabad, in which, according to the police IG, 3,616 criminal cases were registered between July 2014 and June 2015," remarked Justice Muslim. "A sum of Rs3 million was disbursed to this district for investigations and a further Rs2 million on our intervention," he remarked, while going through a portion of the report.
"We have calculated this and it comes to Rs829.64 per case. If this is the amount that is disbursed for investigations, the investigation officer can never probe the matter properly," the judges noted in the order available with The Express Tribune.
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To the bench's query, the finance department officials informed that the police had requested for Rs316 million towards the costs of investigations, out of which they were given Rs140 million and a supplementary budget of Rs75 million was also released in April 2015. The bench was informed that out of the aforesaid amount, the police could not utilise Rs12 million.
When the judges confronted IG Jamali, he could not offer any explanation as to why this amount was not utilised. "The level of corruption has increased threefold in the police since you have assumed charge," said Justice Muslim. He added that situation of law and order in city was worsening but the IG had withheld the funds given to strengthen the investigation wing. "It appears there is no system within the police to oversee all this," said Justice Muslim. At this stage, the advocate-general Abdul Fateh Malik intervened and requested for time to convey the court's displeasure to the competent authority.
"In spite of the police's efforts in Karachi and outside it, the system has not improved," the bench told AG Malik.
Turning to the IG, Justice Muslim told him that the living conditions in the colonies meant to house police personnel were worse than those meant for sanitary workers.
The bench questioned the IG whether the funds were provided to the police only to buy helicopters and armored police carriers, instead of strengthening the force. They remarked that it seemed that nobody bothered to take interest in matters related to investigations and the families of those cops, who had been martyred by criminals.
Rejecting the report, the bench ordered chief secretary to appear on August 4 so that he could appraise the court on the working of the police as no serious efforts had been made by the IG to improve the conditions within the department.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 1st, 2015.
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