Unlawful law enforcers: Committee recommends SC take action against 461 policemen

The committee was formed to take action against policemen with ‘patchy’ characters

KARACHI: The Supreme Court (SC) was informed on Tuesday that a committee has recommended action against 461 policemen, who have been found involved in different crimes.

This was revealed in a report filed before a larger bench, headed by Justice Muhammad Saqib Nisar, on behalf of the police inspector-general, AD Khawaja, regarding action against policemen with patchy characters.

The bench that also comprised justices Amir Hani Muslim and Khilji Arif Hussain was hearing a criminal miscellaneous application filed by the former SHO of Sachal police station, at SC’s Karachi registry, against the Sindh High Court’s judgment to register an FIR against him for a 17-year-old boy’s murder.





Former SHO Ismail Lashari was booked over the death of Anisur Rehman Soomro in an alleged fake encounter. The victim’s family claimed that Lashari had demanded Rs500,000 as bribe for the release of Anis and killed him in a staged encounter by labelling him a terrorist after they failed to pay the amount.

Earlier, the court had ordered the then IG, Ghulam Hyder Jamali, to direct all the SSPs to ensure that the character rolls of all the officers are maintained at district levels. The IG was also directed to submit a compliance report. The judges had also ordered the police chief to conduct screenings of the officers suspected of being involved in criminal activities and to take disciplinary action against them.

Filing the report on the court’s order, Khawaja said that in light of the directives of the apex court to take action against policemen with patchy characters, a committee was constituted to perform the task. He said the committee had obtained the record of 109,320 employees of the police force across the province. The report said that 12,361 policemen were interrogated regarding their involvement in different crimes. Of them, the committee had recommended to the competent authority to take action against 461 policemen, whose involvement in criminal acts of different kinds had been established, it added. The IG said that the committee had also screened 1,714 employees for their suspicious character and were absolved of charges. The inquiry body also recorded the statements of 1,774 policemen.

AD Khawaja said that the task of computerising the records of all the employees of the police force could not be completed due to paucity of funds. Therefore, a request had been made to the authorities concerned for provision of funds worth over Rs10 million for the purpose.

The bench adjourned the hearing due to the absence of Advocate Farooq H Naek, who was representing former IG Jamali.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 4^th, 2016.