Lahore High Court Chief Justice Muhammad Qasim Khan directed the Punjab Inspector General of Police (IGP) Inam Ghani and former IGP Shoaib Dastgir to submit their replies within seven days on two petitions against transfer and posting of top officials.
As the proceedings commenced, the chief justice remarked that the court should be assisted as to under what capacity IGP Ghani was rendering his services in the province. Prima facie, it seemed the federal government had intervened into the powers of the provincial government, he observed.
The attorney general contended that the notification of the appointment had been issued by the establishment division after the approval of the authorities concerned.
Any police officer, in accordance with law, could be appointed on the post of IGP, the deputy attorney general contended.
The petitioners, PML-N‘s MPA Malik Muhammad Ahmed and Numan Amanat, had challenged the transfers and appointments of top officials of the police, claiming that Punjab government had failed in implementing Police Order 2002 in letter and spirit.
The petitioners contended that as a grade 21 officer, Ghani could not be appointed on the post of te next grade.
They added that former CCPO of Lahore Umar Sheikh was an officer of the DIG rank, while an additional inspector general could be appointed as CCPO. The petitioners prayed for setting aside the appointments.
They contended that the IGP’s appointment could not be made without constituting the public safety commission.
They alleged that the Punjab government had politicised the police force of the province and had shown the door to independent-minded officers without any regard to their tenure protected by the law.
The government changed five IGPs in two years and the average tenure of the IGP had been four months, they contended.
The petitioners said the politicisation of the police by the federal and provincial governments was obvious from the arbitrary and short periods of offices of the top police officers over the past many years.
Three CCPOs had been posted and transferred in the last two years despite the fact that similar to the PPO, the CCPO also enjoys the protection of tenure for three years under article 12 of the Police Order 2002.
They prayed that the notifications through which former IGP Shoaib Dastgir and former CCPO Zulifqar Hameed were transferred be declared void ab initio.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 12th, 2021.
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