SC summons establishment division secretary to explain non-compliance with orders

Taking exception to non-compliance with its directives, the Supreme Court has directed the establishment secretary to appear and explain why its orders regarding action taken against all high-ranking police officials who had patchy service record.

The orders were issued on Thursday by a three-member SC bench headed by Justice Gulzar Ahmed hearing the matter of police officers’ alleged involvement in illegal appointments and patchy service records.

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

The bench on Thursday took exception to the establishment division’s failure to file a compliance report on action taken against gazetted and high-ranking police officers with patchy service records.

The SC observed that the government had not submitted a compliance report mentioning the details of officers above grade-17, against whom proceedings were held after being given major or minor penalties by the competent authority.

It is pertinent to mention that the court had last month expressed dissatisfaction over the establishment division’s earlier report and had directed the establishment secretary to file the record of the inquiries conducted against the senior officers of the Sindh police with patchy records within two weeks.

Plea against encroachments

Separately, the SC also directed the Ministry of Housing and Works to submit a master plan of the Pakistan Employees Cooperative Housing Society (PECHS) on the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation’s application against encroachment of a storm water drain in PECHS Block-6.

The SC’s three-member bench headed by Justice Mushir Alam was hearing a petition filed by the KMC seeking the removal of illegally-built shops from the drain. KMC had approached the court against the alleged illegal construction on the drain passing through PECHS Block-6.

The KMC director had submitted that as many as 89 shops had been illegally built over the drain’s land and sold out in violation of the building rules and regulations. He said the unauthorised constructions were causing hurdles in the cleaning of the drain, which could expose the residents to difficulties.

The court took exception to non-compliance with its directives by the Ministry of Housing and Works and directed the federal law officer to submit a report along with the master plan of the PECHS area at the next date of hearing.