Accountability: SC orders for computerised records of policemen

A committee was formed to scrutinise and digitalise the data within six months

KARACHI: The Supreme Court (SC) constituted on Thursday a three-member committee to scrutinise and digitalise the records of the policemen in the province within six months.

A two-member bench, headed by Justice Amir Hani Muslim, also ordered the committee to submit its monthly progress reports to the court, explaining how many police officers are involved in criminal activities.

The apex court's bench was hearing a criminal miscellaneous application filed by former Sachal SHO Ismail Lashari, who challenged the Sindh High Court judgment, which ordered the registration of an FIR against him regarding the killing of 17-year-old Anisur Rehman Soomro.

The victim's family claimed that Lashari demanded Rs500,000 as bribe for the release of Anis. They accused Lashari of killing him in a staged encounter by labeling Anis a terrorist, after they failed to pay the amount.

However, the proceedings took a different turn as the apex court took notice of the involvement of police officials in criminal activities and the lack of action taken against them.

On February 27, IG Ghulam Hyder Jamali was taken to task over his failure to act against such officers. The apex court had ordered the IG to direct all the SSPs to ensure that character rolls of all the officers are maintained at district levels. Jamali was also directed to submit a compliance report. He was ordered to conduct screenings of the officers suspected of being involved in criminal activities and to take disciplinary action against them. However, the bench later on dismissed his 'flimsy' report about compliance of the court's directives by the IG.

On Tuesday, the SC's bench members once again expressed their annoyance over non-compliance of its directives by the police authorities. In order to get its orders implemented, the bench constituted a committee, tasked to computerise the record of all the police personnel in Sindh.

The committee, comprising senior police officers Sanaullah Abbasi and Sultan Khawaja, will also document the criminal history of the police officers, the nature of the crimes and penalties imposed on them.

Setting a six months deadline for the completion of the task, the SC bench ordered the committee to submit its progress reports to the court on a monthly basis. The court also ordered the home secretary, the finance secretary and other relevant officials to provide assistance to the committee for the completion of the task.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 23^rd, 2015.