AD Khwaja again asked to seek permission for leaving headquarters

KARACHI: In a bid to restrain IG Sindh Police AD Khwaja from performing his duties properly, the Sindh home secretary issued an administrative order about seeking of permission by the IGP before leaving the headquarters.

After re-appointment of Suhail Anwar Sial as Sindh home minister, differences between the Sindh government and the IG Sindh have widened. However, the home minister’s two demands of the police authorities were rejected technically also, regarding provision of a bullet-proof vehicle given to Sindh Police by the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, an American International Drug agency, for operational purposes and four rooms at Central Police Office (CPO) for his (Home Minister) office.

According to official documents available with The News, this was the third order regarding the permission of the IGP for leaving of headquarters; firstly Sindh Chief Secretary Rizwan Ahmad Memon issued an order asking IGP Khwaja to seek permission from him regarding leaving of the headquarters, then within two days, another order was issued by the chief secretary to IG Khwaja to seek permission as per leave rules, and now the third order has been issued by Home Secretary Qazi Shahid Pervez, asking the IG to seek permission from him.

Earlier, the Sindh government has issued an order to all Deputy Inspector Generals (DIGs) and Senior Superintendents of Police (SSPs) to inform the Sindh chief secretary before leaving their respective stations after obtaining permission from the chief secretary before leaving their stations.

According to the police rules and legal experts, the orders regarding seeking permission by the IG, DIGs and SSPs were illegal and contradictory to the rules. According to them, the whole province is the jurisdiction of the IG and he did not need any permission from Sindh chief minister, chief secretary or home secretary to visit his jurisdiction. On the other hand, police rules also suggest that the IG Police is the only authority for obtaining leaves or leaving of headquarters by DIGs and SSPs and these kinds of orders issued first time in the history only to suppress the authority of IG Khwaja.

However, these legal experts added that in case the IG of any province wanted to go outside the province then he had to obtain permission or leave from the chief secretary of respective province.

According to the official procedure, in case of visit of the IGP, a schedule of his visit prepared by the police authorities would be shared only with the chief minister secretariat and chief secretary office.

Despite having all official documentary evidence, the reporter called many times Home Minister Suhail Anwar Sial, Home Secretary Qazi Shahid Pervez, Chief Secretary Sindh Rizwan Memon, IG Sindh AD Khwaja to get their versions. Later on, text messages were also sent to them, but no response was received from any of them till filing of this report.