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Tuesday March 19, 2024

Siyal served notice for statement against IGP

By Jamal Khurshid
May 27, 2017

The lawyer representing the rights activists who have challenged the transfer of provincial police chief AD Khowaja in the Sindh High Court, on Friday, sent a legal notice to Home Minister Suhail Anwar Khan Siyal over his statement made a day earlier in which he blamed the incumbent IGP for deterioration of law and order in the province. 

The petitioners’ counsel, Faisal Siddiqui, said the home minster’s statement against the Sindh IGP was a deliberate and concerted effort to politicise the police force.

Rights activists Karamat Ali and other non-government organisations have challenged the repeal of Police Order 2002 and what they described as an illegal action of the Sindh government to make AD Khowaja ineffective.

In his letter, Faisal Siddiqui said the SHC, on April 3, had suspended the Sindh government’s notifications regarding transfer of AD Khowaja and appointment of Sardar Abdul Majeed as acting IG. He said the high court had restored AD Khowaja as the Sindh IG till further orders.

Referring media reports and the home minister’s statement, he said Siyal’s remarks against the police chief clearly showed that he was attempting to nullify the court’s orders by making the IG Sindh non-functional and ineffective. He said making the IG Sindh powerless was subversion of the court’s order.

The lawyer said the home minister’s attitude towards the police chief was a deliberate and concerted effort to politicise the police and destroy whatever autonomy was left with the police and the IG.

The counsel warned the home minster that “if he continued with his contemptuous actions”, the petitioners would institute legal proceedings against him and other relevant officials.