Dreams of reinstatement: Leghari hopes to win back Sindh police chief post
The former Sindh Police Inspector General Fayyaz Leghari has said that he is hopeful that the government will reinstate him to his former post, similar to how Brigadier Ejaz Chaudhry has reverted to his role as Director General Pakistan Rangers Sindh.
The Supreme Court of Pakistan had removed Leghari and Chaudhry from their high ranking posts on June 10 soon after it took suo motu notice of the Sarfaraz Shah extrajudicial murder case.
Ejaz Chaudhry was officially reinstated to his position on Tuesday and sat in his office at the Jinnah Courts building on Dr Ziauddin Ahmed Road on Wednesday. According to Rangers spokesperson Major Zaman, the Pakistan Army General Headquarters had recommended Chaudhry’s name to the federal government and the interior ministry then issued a notification to this effect. Brigadier Zafar Iqbal was serving as the Acting DG Pakistan Rangers Sindh in the aftermath of Chaudhry’s dismissal.
However, the question arises whether Chaudhry’s reinstatement is legal in the backdrop that the apex court had decided to remove him from his post? Also, what would happen to the current IG Sindh Wajid Durrani if the government decides to also reinstate Fayyaz Leghari?
Pakistan Bar Council member and senior lawyer Rasheed Rizvi believes there is “no legal problem” since in its order regarding the removal of the two senior officials, the Supreme Court had stated that this action was necessary to ensure that the inquiry into the Sarfaraz Shah murder case was held impartially.
“Now that the Sarfaraz Shah case has concluded and the suspects convicted, there should be no legal problem in reinstating the officials to their former posts,” says Rizvi.
The order of the bench, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, on June 10 had stated that the “investigation of the case will not be conducted properly and impartially in presence of both these senior officers i.e. Mr Fayyaz Ahmad Leghari, Provincial Police Officer Sindh, and Mr Muhammad Ejaz Chaudhry, DG Rangers (Sindh), as such through the Attorney General for Pakistan, we direct that they should be posted out within a period of three days.”
Fayyaz Leghari told The Express Tribune that “Inshallah, there is hope” that the government would soon reinstate him as IG Sindh. “Of course, if Ejaz Chaudhry has been reinstated then so can I,” he said.
For the moment, Leghari said he would “wait and see” what the government decides since he had just returned from a holiday.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 3rd, 2011.
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Mr. Orangiwala, the police chief doesn't have to be a local one as it sits at the top of the provincial police organisational structure and is assisted by a number of Additional Inspector Generals and Deputy Inspector Generals who have mostly spent the bulk of the careers in the province they serve. Secondly, the current IG Sindh, from his 32 odd years of service, has been posted out of Sindh for two periods only, first one being a year and second one being 5 months as IG Islamabad, before he was the IG Sindh he was Additional IG Sindh for 2 years and in total has spent roughly 30 years as a police officer in this province. He is fluent in Sindhi and has agricultural lands in Shikarpur District where he frequents.
As for the prolonged law and order situation in Karachi, you really must have woken up recently to realise who's calling the shots. Half your 'local' police force was recruited in the 10 years when Musharraf served on the discretion and liberty of the MQM who had the Home Ministry as part of the deal between it and Musharraf to run the city and lick his shoes in return. Ever wonder why law and order was stable during his rule?