Policing policy: IG’s orders violated in SHO reshuffle

Several replaced inspectors had yet to finish one year in post.

LAHORE:

The city police transferred several station house officers (SHOs) before they had completed a year in their posts, violating standing orders from the inspector general (IG) of Punjab Police that they serve for a minimum 12 months, The Express Tribune has learnt.

Lahore Police recently appointed dozens of inspectors as SHOs, mostly in place of sub inspectors, under orders from the IG to implement the Police Order 2002, which requires that an SHO be an inspector-level officer.

Ironically, in implementing this order from the IG, the police appear to have violated other instructions from the most senior officer in the province. At several stations, the new SHOs replaced not sub-inspectors but inspectors. At least six inspectors serving as SHOs were “closed to lines” – meaning they were told to report to police lines and not given any assignment.

On January 17, the IG had issued orders that SHOs must serve for a minimum of one year and they could only be transferred before that on account of misconduct, inefficiency or corruption.

The Express Tribune spoke to four inspectors who had been transferred to police lines. All of them said that there were no misconduct, inefficiency or corruption charges against them and they did not know why they had been transferred.“I wasn’t given any reason for the transfer,” an inspector said. “I didn’t ask either. We’re just meant to say ‘Yes, Sir!’”

He said that the one-year minimum tenure order had been a source of relief as officers were constantly under stress because of the threat of being transferred.

Senior Superintendent of Police Shaukat Abbas disagreed that the IG’s orders had been violated in the recent transfers. “This was a major reshuffling of inspectors on extreme administrative grounds. Some 35 sub inspectors have been replaced by inspectors whose performance is yet to be tested. Some of the inspector SHOs were transferred to other division or sub divisions to create balance in divisions and sub divisions. These were massive administrative adjustments,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 10^th, 2011.