‘Sindh will write to Centre in two days to replace IGP’

Sindh Law Minister Ziaul Hassan Lanjar has said the provincial government is going to write in the next two days a letter to federal government to get the incumbent inspector general of police, AD Khowaja, changed as decided by the cabinet last week.

In a statement issued on Monday, he said the move to get the top cop replaced would be finalised in the current week in light of the Sindh cabinet’s decision held on Saturday. Lanjar announced that an appeal would be filed in court over the directives of the superior judiciary pertaining to the process of making appointments of officers in the provincial police service.

He said that before Saturday’s cabinet meeting, a notice had been sent to IGP Khowaja, intimating to him the matter on the huddle’s agenda. Khowaja gave presentations on the issue of his possible transfer and the proposed draft of rules for transfers and postings of police officers.

On October 28 the cabinet had decided to approach the federal government to replace Khowaja, a grade 21 officer, with Sardar Abdul Majeed Dasti, a grade 22 official.

In an earlier meeting in April, the cabinet had decided to surrender Khowaja’s services back to the federal government and recommend that Dasti, who was then a grade 21 officer, be appointed as the Sindh police chief.

The cabinet took up Khowaja’s case for the first time on Saturday over the ruling of the Sindh High Court which had before the cabinet’s April meeting suspended a provincial government notification to remove Khowaja.

Services Secretary  Mohammad Riazuddin told the meeting that the post of IGP was supposed to be filled by a grade 22 officer; however, Khowaja was a grade 21 officer and posted as an on OPS (own pay scale) in March 2016.

He said that the Supreme Court of Pakistan had reverted all officers appointed on an OPS basis. Therefore, he observed, Khowaja’s posting as police chief was in violation of the apex court’s orders.

The secretary added that after Dasti’s recent promotion to BPS-22, his services had been placed at the disposal of the Sindh government and that the federal government should be approached to appoint him IGP.

CM Shah then allowed Khowaja to speak at the meeting regarding his appointment. The police chief argued that he was posted with the consent of the provincial government. He pointed out that when he was appointed IGP by the federal government, the Supreme Court judgement regarding the reverting of OPS appointments had been announced; therefore, the government was aware of the fact. 

Khowaja also said that since 2005 some 17 IGPs had been posted in Sindh. Of them 14 were of BPS-21 and only three were in of BPS-22, while the IGPs posted in all the provinces and the FIA DG were all  BPS-21 officers, except the Punjab police chief who was promoted recently.

“This shows that there is no hard and fast rule for posting an IGP in BPS-21 or BPS-22,” he said. Ultimately, the cabinet decided that after consulting with the law department the provincial government would approach the federal government to post Dasti as the new IGP.

 IGP Khowaja also gave a detailed presentation on the proposed Sindh Police (posting, Transfer & Tenure) Rules 2017 which he had framed through a seven-member committee following an SHC order last month.

 As per the 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.  The additional IGs, DIGs, SSPs would have a two-year tenure while SP (investigation), SDPO (sub-divisional police officer), SHO and SIO would have a tenure of one year, he proposed.

However, Home Secretary Qazi Shahid Parvez proposed that transfers and postings of officers from BPS-1 to BPS-18 be given to the IGP and the remaining grades’ decision would rest with the provincial government. 

 The CM then directed the home department to revisit the rules proposed by the IGP and recommendations made by the Ministerial Committee to come up with well-thought-out and worked out rules.

 Later in the day, while speaking at a Sindh Literature Festival event, Khowaja said he had the option to approach the courts to implement the recommendations regarding police officers’ transfers and postings he had made in the provincial cabinet. He said he wanted to appoint police officers on merit for a certain time period to improve the law and order situation in the province.