SHC seeks framework, criteria for postings in police department

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Thursday directed the home secretary and East DIG to submit a complete framework, policy, board decision and criteria for issuance of posting orders in the police department.

The direction came on a petition of Zamir Hussain Tunio against kidnapping of his brother Sajid Ali Tunio by unidentified persons.

The petitioner had submitted that unidentified persons demanded Rs10 million as ransom for the release of his brother and threatened to kill him if the ransom was not paid.

A division bench of the SHC headed by Justice Salahuddin Panhwar took exception to the Sharea Faisal SHO’s failure to appear despite court notice.

The high court observed that the SHOs were not appearing before the court and in their absence, they were being represented by additional SHOs who were even not sure whether such a post had been created by the home department under the police hierarchy.

The high court also issued non-bailable warrant for the Sharea Faisal SHO for his arrest and production before the court.

The Jamshed Division SSP appeared before the court and submitted that there was a practice that in case of voluntary surrender by the inspectors, sub-inspectors could be posted as the SHO of the same police station.

He submitted that in a similar fashion, despite availability of an SSP rank officer, due to his willingness or other reasons, a DSP could be posted as the SP.

The officer said such postings was domain of the board and he was not competent to post any sub-inspector or inspector as an SHO within his jurisdiction.

The high court directed the home secretary as well as the East DIG to submit complete framework, policy and decision of the board as well as the criteria for issuance of such posting orders.

The bench also directed the Sindh inspector general of police to ensure that no police officers introduce themselves as additional SHOs in the courts.

The SHC directed the Sharea Faisal SHO to register an FIR of the incident on the complaint of the petitioner and ordered that complete protection be provided to the petitioner, who is also an advocate, and investigation of the incident be carried out in the light of video recording and calls.

In another enforced disappearance case, the high court directed the federal interior and defence ministries to justify detention of a citizen who was picked up by personnel of law enforcement agencies.

During the hearing of a petition filed by Asif, the high court was informed that the detained man, M Ayaz Babar, was arrested from the Karachi airport and his custody had been handed over to the Military Intelligence.

The high court directed a federal law officer to justify the detention of the man and inform it about whether after the arrest, he had been arraigned in any criminal case or kept in custody for an indefinite period.

The SHC also directed the authorities to ensure a meeting of the detained man with his family members.