PM Imran sets a wrong example by defending a ‘tainted’ officer

ISLAMABAD: An act that has been described as blatant politicisation of police, Prime Minister Imran Khan changed the fifth IG Police Punjab Shoaib Dastageer and decided to continue with the CCPO Lahore Umar Shaikh, whom the premier only recently superseded finding him unfit for promotion for being a category C officer. The Intelligence Bureau (IB) report on Umar Shaikh, which was presented before the Central Selection Board, spoke extremely negatively about the repute of the officer. The PM approved Umar Shaikh’s supersession on the recommendation of the CSB, which found him an officer with a “tainted” career. Interestingly, the prime minister changed the IG Punjab and preferred to put his weight behind the officer, whom he superseded few months back by endorsing CSB’s observation, “Officers with such tainted reputation not only managed to manoeuvre the official processes to get important positions but also remained unscathed by subjective evaluation system.”

Only on 15th June 2020, the Establishment Division had formally conveyed to Umar Shaikh that on the recommendation of the Central Selection Board, the competent authority (prime minister) had approved his supersession and thus was not promoted to BS-21.

According to the minutes of the CSB as approved by Prime Minister Imran Khan, “The training reports highlighted that the officer (Umar Shaikh) had limited understanding pertaining to rules and procedure of the inter-departmental linkages and the officer had the tendency to lapse into non-seriousness. Further, the PERs (ACR reports) of the officer for the year 2014 and 2015 were downgraded from ‘Outstanding’ to ‘Good’ by the countersigning officer meaning thereby that the officer could not satisfy his seniors with regard to delivery of services and in shouldering challenging assignments. The Board also observed that officers with such tainted reputation not only managed to manoeuvre the official processes to get important positions but also remained unscathed by the subjective evaluation system.”

The minutes of CSB added, “The Board considered Rules 14(1) of the Civil Servants Promotion (BS-18 to BS-21) Rules 2019 which defined posts in BPS-19 to 21 as Selection posts. Section 9(2) of the Civil Servants Act, 1973, provided that selection to such posts shall be made on the basis of merit. Further, Supreme Court of Pakistan vide its judgment dated 11.10.2002 in Civil Appeal No. 1599 to 1606/1999 had observed that ‘no civil servant can ask for promotion as a right’. Subsequent to discussion, the Board collectively judged the officer to be of category C and decided to recommend the officer for supersession, in line with Rule 8(a) of Civil Servants Promotion (BS-18 to BS-21) Rules 2019, as he failed to meet the required thrashed of 75 marks.”

Before reaching its conclusion as mentioned in the above para, the CSB minutes read, “The Board deliberated upon the service profile TERs/PERs of the officer. The Departmental Representative briefed the Board regarding the officer and mentioned that he did not enjoy good reputation in terms of integrity and professionalism. He also suffered from personality issues which vacillated between very soft to very harsh thus affecting public opinion regarding police service.”

The News is not reproducing here what is written in the IB report, which contains serious allegations. This correspondent shared with Umar Shaikh both the IB report and the CSB minutes for his version.

Shaikh through a WhatsApp message replied that he had detailed comments to offer and would communicate the same by the evening. He, however, briefly said that the level of IB report’s credibility could be gauged from the fact that it did not contain his father’s name besides showing he has three sons while he has two.

He termed the IB report as hearsay because of what he called his “go getter style of working”.

On Tuesday, The News reported who between the IGP Punjab and CCPO Lahore would survive depends on the nature of decision, whether political or administrative, to be taken by Prime Minister Imran Khan.

The PM decided to change the IGP Shoaib Dastageer, who was not ready to ignore what his newly appointed CCPO Umar Shaikh had said about him after his appointment as the Lahore Police chief. For Dastageer, it was an issue of serious misconduct, which could not be tolerated.

Umar Shaikh, however, had told The News that he was trying to meet his IGP but had not succeeded. Shaikh had also shared with this correspondent a WhatsApp message that he claimed to have sent to Dastageer apologising for what he called the “confusion” attributed to his statement, which was considered against the provincial police chief.

According to a senior federal bureaucrat, what Punjab has seen on Tuesday is the “blatant politicisation of police force” and is just the opposite of what the Prime Minister and PTI had committed.

The CSB on whose recommendation the PM had superseded the CCPO Lahore, was headed by chairman Federal Public Service Commission and consisted of members including all IGs and chief secretaries of all the four provinces and key federal secretaries. It is the highest level civil service forum which had recommended Sheikh’s supersession and Shoaib Dastageer was part of that forum.

As reported earlier by The News, the CM Punjab had appointed Shaikh as Lahore police chief following a strong recommendation of a federal government’s adviser.