No salary, no job for Pakpattan ex-DPO despite CM, IGP apologies

ISLAMABAD: Pakpattan former DPO Rizwan Gondal is without any job and without any salary eversince his scandalous removal and despite SC’s suo motu notice that was disposed of after the Punjab chief minister and IGP had apologised to SC over wrongly transferring the officer following political pressure.

Rizwan Gondal was removed as Pakpattan DPO on August 26 while he was surrendered to the federal government by the Punjab government on September 7 but still the officer is facing “neither here nor there” like situation.

Sources said that despite the fact that the officer’s position has been vindicated by no less than the apex court of the country, yet he is neither restored as Pakpattan DPO nor has been given any other posting. Adding insult to his injuries, informed sources said, the officer has not even been given any salary since his removal from the post.

Interestingly, despite the lapse of several weeks, the Establishment Division has not yet received Punjab government’s Sept 7 notification regarding Rizwan Gondal’s surrender to the Centre from the Punjab. There is no explanation available as to why the Punjab government has not yet sent the copy of the notification issued several weeks back.

This situation has not only hanged the fate of the officer in balance regarding his posting but it also caused him to live without any salary. Sources close to the officer told The News that he has repeatedly approached both the IGP office in Punjab and Establishment Division at the Centre to get out of this strange situation but to no avail.

Punjab’s Services and General Administration Department on September 7 notified: “The services of MR RIZWAN OMER GONDAL (PSP/BS-18), awaiting posting in CPO, Punjab, are hereby surrendered to Establishment Division of Pakistan, Cabinet Secretariat, Islamabad, with immediate effect. He is also relieved of his duties in government of the Punjab, forthwith.”

Like his controversial removal as Pakpattan DPO, the officer’s surrender order was also contentious for the reason that this order was issued after the SC had taken suo motu notice of his transfer from Pakpattan. The Punjab government did not wait for the SC’s decision on the suo motu notice and surrendered the officer to the Centre.

Almost a month later the said notification of the Punjab government, the SC on Oct 8 disposed of the Pakpattan DPO transfer case after apex court accepted the written apologies submitted by Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar, ex-IGP Kaleem Imam and others for wrongly transferring Gondal.

On October 3, an inquiry report of the matter was submitted before the SC endorsing that Gondal was transferred on the basis of political intervention. It further added that orders for the transfer of the police officer in the middle of the night came from the chief minister’s office whereas the then IGP had acted as a rubber stamp.

However, despite the apologies of Punjab CM Buzdar, IGP Kaleem Imam and others, which in actual had vindicated the stance of Rizwan Gondal, the officer has neither been restored as Pakpattan DPO nor given any posting.

Just two days after the SC had accepted the apologies of Punjab CM and others, the then Punjab IGP Tahir Khan was unceremoniously removed in violation of SC and SHC clear rulings.

The first violation was concerning the pre-mature transfer of Tahir Khan, who was appointed Punjab IGP hardly over a month back. The second violation related to the new IGP Amjad Javed Saleemi whose retirement date was too early to meet the minimum length of service set by the courts for the provincial police chief.

The normal tenure of an IGP is three years. The Sindh High Court in AD Khawaja case had ruled that “an officer who can serve for the full tenure (three years) must be selected (as IGP).” The SHC added, “Two specific points may be made here. Firstly, the officers in the available pool may be such that the more senior officers may not be able to complete the tenure before retirement, and therefore a rigid adherence to what has just been said may work to the professional disadvantage of such officers.

“Such a situation may therefore amount to an exceptional circumstance, in which a more senior officer may be appointed even though he would not be able to complete the term before retirement. But this can only be done if the officer is able to serve not less than three quarters of the term.”

The SHC decision thus set the rule that a police officer could not be appointed as provincial police chief by the federal government if his remaining service is less than three quarters of the three-year term.

The new Punjab IGP Saleemi retirement date is January 31, 2020, which means that he has far less length of service remaining as per the SHC order to be appointed against the position of provincial police chief.

The premature transfer of former Punjab IGP Muhammad Tahir Khan just over a month of his appointment, was violation of SC’s verdict in Anita Turab case. Khan was appointed the Punjab IGP early last month by the PTI government. Information Minister Chaudhry Fawad Hussain is reported to have said that the IGP was transferred because he was not implementing the government directions.

However, removing an officer without completion of tenure was a violation of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Anita Turab case. The SC gives protection to the tenure of civil servants and in case of pre-mature transfer makes it mandatory for the competent authority to write reasons which are subject to review by the courts.