Establishment division told to act against corrupt senior police officers

The apex court on Friday directed the establishment division to complete departmental proceedings against senior police officers involved in corrupt practices and sought a compliance report within four weeks.

The direction was issued by a three-member bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Justice Mushir Alam, while hearing the matter of police officers’ involvement in irregularities, criminal activities and those having patchy service records.

The court had earlier directed the chief secretary and the Sindh police chief to file a fresh report stating the nature of patchy records of police officers and personnel as well as the penalties imposed on them by the competent authority during their departmental proceedings.

Advocate General Sindh Zamir Ghumro, in a report submitted before the court, mentioned that the statement of allegations against 10 senior police officers including former Sindh IGP Ghulam Hyder Jamali, DIG Training Shahab Mazhar Bhalli, Additional DIG Aitezaz Ahmed Goraya and others were sent to the establishment division for disciplinary proceedings in accordance with the law and service rules.

He maintained that 22 police officers of the provincial government were proceeded against by the competent authority and their cases were pending on different stages.  

The three-member bench directed the federal law officer to ensure the division proceeds against the police officers strictly in accordance with the law and expedite the process, and submit a report within the stipulated time.

The police scrutiny committee had, in an earlier hearing, informed the SC that as many as 352 police officers and personnel had been recommended for punishment because of their patchy service records.

Submitting the progress report to the court, the three-member body said service records of 109,320 police officers and personnel were received, of which records of 12,361 were scrutinised with the suspicion of being patchy.

The report said 352 officials were recommended for punishment for having patchy records, while 1,182 were cleared for punishment on the same grounds, adding that so far 1,534 were called in for personal hearing and their cases finalised. The report stated that 17 police officials were dismissed from service, 122 were told to retire and 11 had taken voluntarily retirement.

According to police records, non-gazetted officers and personnel have been involved in several heinous crimes, including extortion, fake encounters, land grabbing, receiving bribes from gambling dens and liquor shops, providing assistance to Lyari-based gangsters and political parties, smuggling Iranian petrol and diesel, arranging fake ID cards for illegal immigrants, etc. 

Zulfiqarabad terminal

The SC directed the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation to inspect the facilities being provided at the recently inaugurated Zulfiqarabad Oil Tankers Terminal and asked the authority to streamline installation of a fire-fighting system and other facilities at the terminal.

The court was hearing a petition filed by Shugafta Bibi, a resident of Clifton Block-1, who pleaded with the chief justice of Pakistan to order the shifting of the oil tankers’ terminal from her locality. The woman had initially written a letter to the chief justice of Pakistan which he later converted into a constitutional petition.

The municipal commissioner informed the court that the terminal had been inaugurated and 50 percent of the facility has been made operational; the rest of the terminal will be made operational within a month subject to availability of funds.

He submitted that 1,400 oil tankers of the Pakistan State Oil will be accommodated at the facility, while tankers of other oil companies will be parked after completion of the remaining portion.

The counsel representing tanker workshop owners submitted that they have been unable to shift the vehicles from Shireen Jinnah Colony since they were yet to be provided necessary facilities.

The court appointed a court officer as the commissioner and ordered an inspection of the site; a report was sought within a week.