SHC receives plea seeking police chief’s appearance in court today

Petitioners request that IGP swear affidavit stating reasons for decision to step down

The Sindh High Court (SHC) has been requested to ask the provincial police chief to swear an affidavit stating detailed reasons for his decision to voluntarily step down.

Submitting a fresh application in court on Monday, the petitioners also requested the SHC to ask IGP AD Khowaja to appear before the bench in the next hearing scheduled for Tuesday (today).

The petition referred to the police chief’s May 17 plea requesting the court to vacate its interim order about his transfer because he had decided to voluntarily step down in the interest of the police and public order. The petitioners termed IGP Khowaja’s application “surprising and unfortunate”.

The police chief’s advocate has stated before the court and the media that the reason Khowaja wished to quit his job was because he was “not allowed to work” and because there was “great interference by the provincial government” in his duties.

The petitioners’ application stated that it was obvious that either the IGP had been pressurised into filing the statement before the bench to subvert the proceedings or he had deliberately misled the court by not stating the true facts behind his decision and had thereby wasted the court’s precious time and resources.

On May 17 Khowaja had told the SHC that the uncertainty over the IGP’s appointment was increasingly telling on the morale and efficiency of the police, as the ranks and officers were showing the strains of having to adjust with his episodic removal and reinstatement in the highly challenging times when the country was waging wars against multiple threats emanating from internal and external sources.

He said the ongoing controversy with regard to his appointment could be brought to an end so that a full-time police chief could restore the flagging morale of the force and strengthen the public’s confidence in the department.

He added that in the absence of the provincial government’s support, operational difficulties arose for him, as on the one hand, he had to ensure public security and discipline among the ranks, and on the other hand, he had to overcome the mounting extraneous pressures.

He requested the court to allow him to approach the federal government to recall his services from Sindh so that the competent authorities could resolve the issue of the provincial police chief’s appointment.

The advocate general contended that the issues of the police and the armed forces could not be decided by the court in writ jurisdiction. He said the police department was a provincial subject so the Sindh government was empowered to appoint the police chief.

He added that during former president Pervez Musharraf’s rule, various ordinances were promulgated in violation of the law and the constitution through bypassing provincial autonomy. He requested the court to vacate the interim stay order and dismiss the petition as non-maintainable.