Punishments suggested for 460 policemen with patchy record, SC told

Karachi

Punishments have been recommended for 460 police officials for having a patchy service record, a police scrutiny committee told Supreme Court on Tuesday.

The committee submitted its progress report in a case pertaining to the involvement of police personnel in criminal activities and cases. The court had directed Sindh’s police chief to file a fresh report disclosing the nature of the patchy records of the police personnel and the penalities imposed by the competent authority in departmental proceedings.

Inspector General of Police A D Khowaja had been directed to screen out all such police officers, who were awarded major or minor penalties during departmental proceedings, and proceed against them under Section 16.2 of the police rules.

Filing progress report before the court, the three-member scrutiny committee headed by the IGP submitted that the service records of 109,320 police personnel and officials were received, out of which the records of 12,361 personnel with a suspected patchy record were scrutinised. 

The report stated that 460 officials were recommended for punishments, and 714 other officials were cleared.

It stated that 1,174 officials had been called to personal hearings and their cases finalised with recommendations.

The report said the decisions of the scrutiny committee were conveyed to Karachi’s additional inspector general for taking appropriate action after the fulfillment of codal formalities. It said the computerisation process of service records could not be completed due to lack of funds, and a proposal for an amount of Rs210,900,000 was sent to the government and approval was awaited.

The committee also recommended that the Sindh and Karachi police chiefs should ensure that the informal system of policing should be immediately stopped and in case the services of some officials were essentially required they should be formally officially posted on merit so that the process of authority and accountability went side by side.

Giving the inquiry report against dismissed police officers Ishaq Lashari, Ismail Lashari and Malik Shoaib, who were taking part in police raids despite their dismissal from service, the report stated that the dismissed officials were actively working at different police stations and performing different police-related duties in informal capacity. The report said that the then DIG East in July 2015 had directed the SSP Malir to desist from such practices. 

It further mentioned that some officers shifted from the SHO post were still enjoying the official powers of that position and certain officers were posted only on paper whereas practically others were unofficially enjoying such powers. 

The report further stated that after cognizance by the court these officials were reportedly no more active as verified by the SSP Malir on October 20, 2015.

In September last year, the court had expressed concern over media reports published in a section of the press mentioning that sub inspector Shoaib Malik, who was dismissed from service with two other police officers, Ismail Lashari and Ishqaue Lashari, had suffered bullet injuries in a raid conducted by Malir police. The court asked IGP to explain how such a police officer was working in the police despite his dismissal from service.

According to the police record, non-gazatted police officers and personnel were involved in several heinous crimes, including taking extortion money, staging fake encounters, grabbing pieces of land, receiving beat from gambling dens and liquor shops,  providing assistance to Lyari gangsters and political parties, smuggling Iranian petrol and diesel, arranging fake ID cards for illegal immigrants and taking bribes.