Daily Times

KARACHI: The federal government on Saturday removed Sindh Police Inspector General Ghulam Haider Jamali from his office in line with the orders of the Supreme Court.

The government has appointed Allah Dino Khawaja (ADK) as the new inspector general of Sindh Police, says a notification issued by the Establishment Division. According to reports, the Sindh government submitted names of three officers for the post of the provincial police chief and the federal government picked Khawaja for this office. The three senior most Sindh police officers are reported to have sent a report to the Supreme Court, urging it to restrain Jamali from influencing inquiries. One of these inquiries was related to the alleged illegal appointments to the Sindh Reserve Police (SRP), Hyderabad. Khawaja has been serving as additional inspector general at the Special Branch of the Sindh Police and was a member of an inquiry committee, along with Additional Inspector General of the Counterterrorism Department Dr Sanaullah Abbasi and Additional Inspector General Naeem Shaikh.

According to the sources, Khawaja and Abbasi were of the view that Jamali was not the competent authority to scrutinise their service record or take any other action against them and that he raised the issue of allocation of their service group without having any locus standi and competence. On Thursday, Jamali conceded to a three-member bench of the Supreme Court that 5,000 of the 12,000 appointments to the Sindh Police were illegal. The court ordered the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to investigate the recruitments issue as well as unjust disbursement of investigation funds. The court directed the NAB to submit a report in this regard within four weeks.

The court summoned Jamali and other senior officers of the Sindh Police in December 2015 in a contempt of court case. Estranged Pakistan People’s Party leader Dr Zulfiqar Mirza had filed a petition challenging Sindh Police authorities’ decision to besiege the Sindh High Court and the adjoining anti-terrorism courts on May 19 and 23.

Masked and armed policemen in civvies had beaten Mirza’s guards inside the SHC building in May 2015 and then turned to journalists covering the violent episode. They smashed parked vehicles and snatched cameras from journalists. Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah met Khawaja soon after his appointment as inspector general of Sindh Police on Saturday. Later, Khawaja told the media that restoration of peace in the province was his top most priority. He said that he would make the Sindh Police a professional force and develop a mechanism to address complaints at the lower level. He said that he was not a revengeful person and he had no political affiliation.