Promotion: Establishment secy’s reply awaited on CCPO’s plea

Officer says he was due promotion before current posting.

LAHORE:

Chief justice of the Lahore High Court on Friday again sought a reply from the establishment secretary on a petition by Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Ahmad Raza Tahir, protesting the delay in his promotion from grade 20 to 21.

CCPO Tahir, a deputy inspector general of police at the time he had filed the petition, said that despite being qualified for promotion to grade 21, the department was discriminating against it.

He said that the central selection committee had also recommended him for promotion, but the department was delaying the case, taking unfair advantage of a suo motu notice taken by the former LHC chief justice of his earlier appointment and a departmental inquiry on court orders.

On Friday, the CCPO moved an application saying that the committee had ignored him and granted promotion to police officers junior to him. He said his case had been deferred on the plea that he was facing a departmental inquiry regarding the Gojra incident.

He said the inquiry had not been completed so far despite court’s order.

He said this was a violation of the Supreme Court directions that an officer could not be deprived of due promotion on the basis of an inquiry pending against him.

He requested the court to direct the government to promote him.

The court issued notice to the respondent and sought a reply by October 18.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 24^th, 2011.