Dogar to move court for CCPO’s slot

Punjab officials excuse themselves from accepting SC’s orders

LAHORE:

Ghulam Mahmood Dogar has decided to approach the court after being denied taking over as the Lahore capital city police officer (CCPO) despite the Supreme Court’s orders and a notification being issued for this purpose.

The Punjab chief secretary and the IGP’s staff excused themselves from accepting these documents.

Last week, the apex court had suspended the transfer order of Dogar and reinstated him as the Lahore CCPO.

The case related to Dogar’s transfer was heard by a three-member bench of the SC, comprising Justice Ijazul Ahsa, Justice Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi, and Justice Muneeb Akhtar

Last month, the Punjab caretaker chief minister had appointed Bilal Siddique Kamyana as the new Lahore police chief and ordered the transfer of Dogar, who was dubbed as ‘PTI’s blue-eyed officer’.

Kamyana, a senior police officer, is praised by the PML-N but dreaded by the PTI for crushing its long march to Islamabad in May last year.

The court stated that the power to order transfers belonged to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and not the chief election commissioner (CEC).

It added that the ECP had not delegated its powers in writing to the CEC, referring to the order for Dogar’s transfer.

The ECP had given verbal approval to an unwritten request.

Who called the chief election commissioner and requested the transfer?” Justice Muneeb questioned.

That individual should have been told to be patient as the ECP would make the decision on the application, he added.

In addition, Justice Muneeb expressed concerns about the CEC making decisions on behalf of the entire electoral watchdog.

Furthermore, the top court denied the ECP’s request for additional time to provide records on transfers and postings.

Earlier this month, while addressing a news conference in Islamabad, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah played ‘censored’ leaked audio clips in which former Punjab chief minister Parvez Elahi could allegedly be heard discussing about the cases being heard in the SC, including the one involving Dogar.

In the clips, Elahi purportedly wanted cases to be fixed before a sitting apex court judge.

Sanaullah claimed that he had censored the leaked audio clips as he did not want to reveal the identity of the SC judge before a forensic analysis was conducted.

Dogar, as the Lahore CCPO was at the centre of a tussle between the federal government and the then-Punjab government under Chaudhry Parvez Elahi last year.

Dogar booked PML-N leaders in cases and headed the Wazirabad JIT which was probing the attempted assassination of Imran Khan.

The Centre tried recalling him, which was blocked by the Punjab government. It ultimately suspended Dogar, but he was reinstated by the top court. He was eventually transferred by the caretaker government.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, February 25^th, 2023.