Daily Times

KARACHI: The Advocate General Sindh has accused the litigants of dragging the petition against transfer of inspector general of Sindh police AD Khawaja for too long as the Sindh High Court adjourned the matter due to the absence of their lawyer.

A two-judge bench headed by Justice Munib Akhtar adjourned the hearing till today when it was informed that the applicants’ lawyer was busy before a bench of the apex court and thus he couldn’t appear before it.

The bench extended its interim order restraining the Sindh government from surrendering the services inspector general of Sindh police AD Khawaja to the center till further orders.

Advocate General Zameer Hussain Ghumro expressed displeasure over the absence of the applicant’s counsel, saying they were dragging the matter on for months.

During previous hearing, he had pleaded the court to vacate its stay order against the removal of inspector general Khawja, saying lack of working relationship between the chief minister and the inspector general was adversely impacting the law and order situation and other relevant matters.

The PPP’s provincial government had suffered a setback on March 3rd when the high court suspended its notification restoring AD Khawaja as inspector general Sindh and asking the new inspector general to relinquish the charge.

The court observed that the inspector general could be removed only after the cabinet endorses the decision as the apex court had held in its verdict that the provincial governments could exercise their statutory powers conferred on them through cabinet.

In the wake of the court’s order, the Sindh government had summoned a cabinet meeting which endorsed the removal of AD Khawaja and the appointment of additional inspector general Sardar Abdul Majeed Dasti in his place.