After petitioner beaten, SC fires security officer

Four SPs accused of beating police officer say he was insulting the judges.

KARACHI: The security officer of the Karachi Registry of Supreme Court of Pakistan, Inspector Sohail Anwar, was sent packing on Tuesday after he lied about senior police officers allegedly beating a petitioner.

On Monday, DSP Malik Maqsood who had challenged his seniors in court was leaving after the SC ruled in his favour when he was allegedly beaten at the gate. He has accused high-ranking officers Farooq Awan, Khurram Waris, Raja Umar Khattab, Mazhar Mashwani and “a bespectacled guy” who he cannot identify. “Because they were all being reverted to the rank of inspectors, they thrashed me to vent their anger,” he said. “Khurram Waris got three out-of-turn promotions, he is junior to me by 20 years.”

Justices Anwar Zaheer Jamali, Amir Hani Muslim and Muhammad Athar Saeed have taken suo motu notice of the ugly incident and after viewing the closed-circuit television footage have ordered an inquiry.

Additional DIG Bashir Memon, Nasir Aftab and Kamran Fazal have been given till September 6 to find out what happened. A DIG has promised the judges that they would deliver impartially as they were not from the city police and have a “good reputation as honest officers”.

The judges have rejected a report by SSP Security Asif Aijaz Shaikh as “biased” and tilted in favour of the police officers accused of the beating. The court nonetheless wants his report to be made part of the proceedings.

The beaten DSP went to the Aram Bagh police to try and file an FIR but as the police did not entertain it, he was only able to apply for one. On Tuesday, a counter application was filed by an SI who stated that the four SPs and their security guards were not responsible for beating up the DSP. This version of events maintains that the DSP said some insulting things against the judges and when an officer tried to stop him, he pulled his SMG on them.

“If an officer pulls out a Kalashnikov in court and is threatening to kill someone should no one try to stop him?” asked Khurram Waris.

SIU chief Farooq Awan told The Express Tribune that he and other senior police officers were ready to face departmental action if found guilty. While talking about the out-of-turn promotions, he said that he and other senior police officials have informed the chief secretary and others seniors about their point of view. “The law is for the future, not the past,” he said. “The out-of-turn promotion issue is for those who were promoted after 2009, it doesn’t apply to us.” Meanwhile, a notification to demote three police officers to their original ranks was issued on Tuesday after the SC issued orders to the chief secretary. Those officers are Hamid Ali Bhurgari who will go back to ASI, Shahbaz Khan Mughal to ASI and Abdul Jabbar Qaimkhani to SI.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 5^th, 2012.