Keep them guessing: 139 sub-inspectors fight to retain their new post

PHC stops police department from withdrawing their promotion

PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court bench stayed a notification in which the promotion order of 139 sub-inspectors was withdrawn. The promotion order was reversed by the provincial police department only two months after it was issued.

The division bench that issued the stay order comprised Justices Roohul Amin Khan and Syed Afsar Shah. The decision was given during the hearing of the petition filed on behalf of 139 sub-inspectors through their counsel Ijaz Anwar.

Anwar told the court the petitioners were serving in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa police department as assistant sub-inspectors in various districts of the province. Noting their work performance, career record and seniority, the police department promoted them to the posts of sub-inspectors.

“The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa inspector general of police issued a notification on July 24 where the petitioners before the court were promoted to the post of sub-inspectors,” Anwar said.

Read: 25 inspectors promoted as DSPs

However, all of a sudden, the notification in question was withdrawn on September 4, he added. The said posts were reserved for the wardens of traffic police was the reason given by the provincial police department, Anwar told the court. According to the department, these posts will be filled from people of traffic police and soon a notification in this regard will be issued.

The counsel for the petitioners said it was discrimination against his clients as the required procedures and rules were followed before their promotion order was issued. “Demoting them has affected their career,” he said.

Anwer requested the court to declare the withdrawal of the notification null and void, and to deem it against the law and Constitution. He reminded the court it had asked the police department on a previous hearing to file comments in this case but the department failed to follow through with the order.

Upon hearing the arguments, the court issued a stay order restraining the police department from further action on the withdrawal notice. The court also directed the K-P IGP to file his comments before the next hearing in the case.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 25^th, 2015.