Civil society groups which have filed a constitutional petition in the Sindh High Court (SHC) regarding police reforms in the province have expressed disappointment with the Sindh government’s most recent move to transfer IGP AD Khowaja and the non-approval of his proposed reforms.
In a provincial cabinet meeting chaired by CM Syed Murad Ali Shah on Saturday, the Sindh government had decided to approach the federal government to remove Khowaja from his post and to appoint Sardar Abdul Majeed Dasti in his place.
Following this, in a statement released on Sunday, the petitioners demanding police reforms, said they were disappointed because the Sindh government’s decision to transfer Khowaja and to not approve the Sindh Police (Posting, Transfer and Tenure) Rules, 2017 he had proposed clearly signifies that the provincial government was trying to “subvert the letter and spirit of the Sindh High Court’s landmark judgement while pretending to implement it”.
The petitioners include civil society organisations including Piler, the Orangi Pilot Project and the Urban Resource Centre as institutions, and Piler Executive Director Karamat Ali, Nazim F Haji of the Citizens Trust Against Crimes, artiste Shahzad Roy and urban rights activist Aquila Ismail as concerned citizens. Regarding the decision to recommend Khowaja’s transfer to the federal government, the petitioners stated that it was a repeat of the April 1 notification through which the Sindh government had earlier removed the IGP and replaced him with Dasti, adding that the notification had been declared illegal by the SHC.
“Moreover, the reason given to recommend the removal/replacement of AD Khowaja is that he was appointed on OPS basis, is clearly malafide and an afterthought because it is the very Sindh Government who had appointed IGP, Khowaja, on OPS basis and even otherwise, the statutory tenure of the IGP cannot be curtailed on such flimsy grounds,” the statement added.
It further stated that the cabinet’s decision to not approve the police reforms proposed by Khowaja at Saturday’s meeting was on the “flimsy ground that these new rules are violative of the Police Rules, 1934” and goes against the SHC’s earlier judgment.
“The petitioners are of the view that the decision taken yesterday by the Sindh cabinet merely reflects the mindset of the Sindh government to keep the Sindh police politicised and the mindset of Sindh bureaucracy to continue with their colonial attitude viz-a-viz the citizens of Sindh, and both these mindsets are detrimental to the creation of a Sindh Police, which is independent, modern and citizen oriented,” the statement added.
In Saturday’s Cabinet meeting, the Sindh government decided to push for IGP Khowaja’s removal on the grounds that he is a Grade-21 officer when, as per an SHC ruling, an IGP should be a Grade-22 officer.
Sindh Secretary Services Mohammad Riazuddin had argued that Khowaja was posted as police chief in 2016 as an official on own-pay-scale (OPS), but the Supreme Court had reverted all OPS officers to the original postings. Riazuddin said that to comply with the top court order, Khowaja should be transferred and the federal government should be approached to appoint Dasti, who was recently promoted to grade-22 and whose services have been placed at the Sindh government’s disposal.
Moreover, the cabinet had also decided not to approve the police reforms Khowaja had suggested at Saturday’s meeting. As per his proposed rules, the IGP would have all the transfer and posting powers of all the police officers from BPS-1 to BPS-21 which he would use through an assessment board, while the additional IGs, DIGs, SSPs would have a two-year tenure and SP (investigation), SDPO (sub-divisional police officer), SHO and SIO would have a tenure of one year.