49 of 77 SHOs are sub inspectors

Meanwhile, 36 inspectors are posted to police lines.

LAHORE:

Sub-inspectors are serving as station house officers (SHOs) in 49 of the 77 police stations in the city, though the posts are meant to be filled by more senior officers.

The posting of a sub inspector as an SHO, when inspectors are available, is a violation of police rules, as well as instructions issued by the police chief earlier this year.

Some police officials say that there is a shortage of qualified inspectors, but these claims ring hollow as 36 inspectors are currently posted to police lines and are working as security officers for important buildings and VIP residences.

Sources in the police said that most of the SIs serving as SHOs won their posts through connections with influential politicians or officials. They said superintendents of police (SPs) often preferred to have SIs as SHOs because the junior officers were likely to be more pliable. SHOs are appointed by the senior superintendent of police (operations) and deputy inspector general (operations) on the recommendation of SPs.

Inspector blues

Many inspectors are confined to security duty. Thirty-six serve at police lines and provide security at places like the former Chief Minister’s House on Zahoor Elahi Road, the residence of Justice (retd) Khalilur Rehman Ramday and the office of the district coordination officer.

Another complication in the power structure is that the official in charge of the investigation wing at most police stations is an inspector, often serving under an SHO who is a sub inspector. The SHO is in charge of the operation wing of the police station.

“How would you like to be deputed to a posting with less power under a junior officer with less experience? We need the SHO’s signature even to file a challan in the court. It’s humiliating,” said a police inspector on condition of anonymity. “Inspectors are being wasted on security duties,” he added.

Another inspector who is currently working as an SHO said that inspectors were being sidelined because the SP could not punish them directly. “SPs want complete authority in their area for which the SHOs are vital. An SI appointed to a senior post knows he owes his position directly to the SP, so he will bend over backwards to oblige his boss,” he said.

Muslim Town SP Romail Akram said he had never recommended an SI be appointed an SHO. He said the SP was in charge of a division and had power over all his subordinates. He said if an SI was serving as an SHO, it was because of his ability.

Another SP, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) required challans to be signed by SHOs. He said that it was odd that in many police stations in Lahore, SIs were effectively senior in authority to inspectors. He said most of these SHOs were recruited as assistant sub inspectors through the Punjab Public Service Commission. He said many inspectors had become lazy in their jobs.

SSP (operations) Faisal Rana said that the police were trying to depute inspectors as SHOs to even out the imbalance. He said that at the moment they were short of inspectors and that was why so many SIs were serving as SHOs. “The SHO is a critical post and that is why active sub inspectors who are passionate about their work have been deputed as SHOs,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 14^th, 2011.