Naimat Khan
KARACHI: Sindh Government on Saturday decided to replace Allah Dino Khowaja with Sardar Muhammad Dasti as Inspector General of Police Sindh.
“Sindh Cabinet has decided to approach the federal government to post a Grade B-22 officer as IG Police Sindh in place of the incumbent who is in grade B-21 officer,” spokesman CM House told The Frontier Post. Currently Sardar Muhammad Dasti is the only police officer in Grade 22.
This decision, spokesman said, was taken by the provincial cabinet in its meeting held under the chairmanship of Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah here at Committee room of the CM House. The meeting was attended by the provincial minister; special assistants, chief secretary Riwan Memon, IGP AD Khowaja and others concerned provincial secretaries.
There were 10 different items on the agenda of the cabinet which came under discussion. They were confirmation consideration of Police Rules proposed by IG Police, posting of grade B-22 officers, amendment in Section 144 of the code of Criminal Procedure 1898, draft Rules under Hindu Marriage Act, Creation of Ziauddin University Board of Higher Education, grant of charter to Sohail University, Karachi and amendment in Sindh development and maintenance of Infrastructure Cess Act.
IG Sindh AD Khowaja gave a detailed presentation on the proposed Sindh Police (posting, Transfer & Tenure) Rules 2017. He said that in the light of Sindh high court judgment of September 7, 2017 he has framed draft rules through a seven-member committee headed by an additional IG.
He said that that the IG would have all the transfer and posting powers of all the police officers right from Grade-1 to Grade-21 which he would use through an `assessment board’ and there would a proper posting tenure.
He proposed that Additional IG, DIGs, SSPs would have a two-year tenure of posting while SP (investigation), SDPO, SHO and SIO would enjoy a tenure of one year. He added that the post of SHO would be given to a police officer of Sub-inspector or inspector. He must not be more than 55 years of age and must have qualified upper school course with minimum length of service in police for seven years.
Talking about pre-mature transfer method, the IG said that there must be compelling reasons such as physical or mental incapacitation duly certified by medical board or an officer is arrested or found guilty in police/departmental investigation. The rules framed by the IG also say that the posting of female officers would be made preferably in the proximity of their home districts.
The home secretary, Qazi Shahid Parvez gave a presentation prepared by the Ministerial committee led by Home Minister Sohail Siyal, Law Minister Ziaul Hassan Lanjar, Advocate General Zamir Ghumro and Law secretary Iftikhar Shahlwani.
The Home secretary said that the new terms has been introduced in the Police Rules proposed by the IG. They are Gazetted, subordinate PO, Upper Subordinate and Lower Subordinate which are inconsistent with the police Rules 1934.
He proposed that the transfer and posting of police officers from grade B-1 to B-18 be given to the IG police and rest of the transfer/posting of senior officers is the authority of the government that is the chief minister.
On this the chief minister directed Home department to revisit the Rules proposed by the IG Police and the recommendations made by the Minister Committee and come up with well-thought and worked rules. “My objective is to establish writ of the government and improve the performance of the police, therefore the firm up proposal be submitted to him within next 15 days,” he said.
The second agenda was the posting of a senior police officer of Grade-22 as IG police. Secretary Service Mohammad Riazuddin giving presentation to the cabinet said that the post of IG is in BS-22, however, AD Khowaja is an officer of grade B-21 and has been posted in OPS on March 12,2016. He added that on promotion to Grade B-22, the services of Sardar Abdul Majeed Dasti have been placed at the disposal of Sindh government and he has been made OSD.
Secretary Services said that the Supreme Court of Pakistan has returned all the officers posted on OPS. Therefore, posting of Mr AD Khowaja is on OPS and it is violation of the Supreme Court orders. He proposed the cabinet to approach the federal government to post Mr Majeed Dasti as IG police, Sindh in place of AD Khowaja.
The chief minister allowed Mr AD Khowaja, the IG Sindh to make representation before the cabinet.
The IG said that when he was posted as IG Sindh with the consent of the provincial government. When he was posted as IGP Sindh by the federal government the Supreme Court judgment against OPS was in vogue. It means the federal government was mindful of the fact. He added that since 2005 some 17 IGPs have been posted in Sindh, of them 14 were in grade B-21 and only three were in grade B-22.
He pointed out that the IGPs posted in all the provinces and the DG FIA were all in grade B-21 and recently, means after posting, the Punjab IGP has been promoted to grade B-22. This shows that there was no hard and fast rule of posting of an IGP in grade B-21 or B-22.
The cabinet decided that after consulting the law department the provincial government would approach the federal government to post Mr Dasti as new IG police as there is one post of grade B-22 in Sindh.
The other item which came under discussion in the cabinet was amendment in the Cr.PC. The home department proposed that the since the post of zila nazim has been abolished, therefore it would be prudent to replace the word zila nazim with the word `government or its authorized officer in Section 144 Cr.PC. The cabinet approved the proposal.
The cabinet discussed the draft Rules of Hindu Marriage Act. The chief minister showing his displeasure said that the marriage act was passed by the provincial assembly in 2016 and till this date the rules have not been drafted. This is unacceptable, he said and directed chief secretary to send a circular to the entire department urging them to make the rules for which the assembly has already enacted law. Under the rules, the Hindu marriages would be registered and a certificate of marriage would also be issued. The rules have been approved by the cabinet.
The Sindh cabinet also discussed Ziauddin University Board of Secondary Education proposal and said that there should be clear concept paper about the role of a private higher education, role of provincial government in its decision making and if Ziauddin University board is allowed to function then various other private institutions would come up with a similar request. The cabinet directed University and Board department to work out a detailed plan before placing the request of the Ziauddin University board before the cabinet.
The cabinet approved the grant of charter to Sohail University, Karachi and also directed the U&B department to work out a detailed policy for giving charter to a university. There should be a proper space/building for the university and if the university is given charter it must fulfill the other requirements within a specified time frame.
Just after the cabinet meeting the home minister Sohail Anwar Siyal and Minister for Information Syed Nasir Shah briefed the media about the decisions made by the cabinet.
