Police recruitment flawed, IG tells SC

LAHORE
The Punjab Inspector General of Police (IGP) on Tuesday conceded before the Supreme Court that serious lapses had been committed in scrutiny process of appointments made in the police department.
IGP Mushtaq Ahmad Sukhera and other high officials of police appeared before a two-judge bench of the Supreme Court in connection with hearing of the department’s appeal against an order of the Lahore High Court that reinstated 62 personnel. The department had dismissed the personnel from service on the charges of their involvement in criminal activities. The bench, led by Justice Ijaz Ahmad Chaudhry, expressed serious concern over appointment of desperadoes in the police department. The judge said if the department would continue with defective appointment system, terrorists and agents of RAW, Indian spy agency, could easily filtrate it.
The IGP said recruitment with no proper scrutiny of the candidates was a grave negligence on part of the department. He said the recruitment record was being computerised to counter appointment of holders of criminal record and bogus academic documents. He admitted that the department had failed to contest properly the stay orders obtained by terminated personnel. The bench suspended the order of the LHC and directed the IGP to submit a report about inquiries into bogus appointments within a fortnight.
dismissed: A division bench of the Lahore High Court on Tuesday dismissed a petition seeking stay order against execution of a ‘paralysed’ condemned prisoner Abdul Basit.
The bench observed that it was the job of jail superintendent and doctor to decide whether a death row prisoner was fit enough for execution.
Nusrat Parveen, mother of the convict, had filed the petition seeking an order against death warrants issued for the execution of her son. Basit, 43, was convicted and sentenced to death for killing one Asif Nadeem of Okara murder in 2009. Barrister Sarah Belal on behalf of the petitioner argued that the execution of a paralysed man was against the jail law and human rights.
She said Basit was paralysed from the waist down due to negligence of jail officials and used a wheelchair to move. Counsel of Punjab Home Department told the bench that the sections 350 and 356 of jail manual allowed execution of crippled convicts. He pointed out that the jail officials used wheelchair to take the disabled prisoners to the gallows. After hearing the government’s version the bench headed by Justice Muhammad Anwarul Haq dismissed the petition. The bench said the petitioner should wait for the decision of jail superintendent or doctor as they had the jurisdiction to decide fitness of a prisoner for the execution.