The brutal killing of some 11 protesters at the Idara Minhajul Quran in Lahore on June 17 at the hands of the police reflects the breakdown of the police’s chain of command and violation of the rules of government business in Punjab. For the last six years, Chief Minister (CM) Punjab Shahbaz Sharif has been running the province through informal channels of authority, bypassing formal government offices and using his surrogates to enforce his orders. Although the Punjab police is notorious for committing excesses against the people, the shooting of people in Lahore was an unprecedented incident even by their own standards. Hardly ever before has the police opened fire directly at a mob with lethal weapons like G-3 rifles and Kalashnikovs for such a small cause as the removal of encroachments from a side road in a residential area.
CM Shahbaz Sharif has been administering the province through pliable junior civil servants elevated to senior positions for the implementation of his orders. A coterie of malleable bureaucrats has been created to bypass formal channels of authority, which amounts to a de facto parallel system of administration. The CM’s son, Hamza Shahbaz, has been vested with informal powers to oversee the provincial administration while his father remains busy in Islamabad. Rana Sanaullah, the senior minister, used to direct the police on behalf of the CM while the outgoing Inspector General (IG) Police Punjab was a ceremonial figure.
Not only the district police officers but also deputy superintendents of police used to be posted on the instructions of Rana Sanaullah and Dr Tauqir Shah, the secretary to the CM. The words of these two people were considered orders from the CM himself. No officer dared defy them for risk of humiliation and transfer. Following the bloody Lahore incident, while removing his secretary, Shahbaz Sharif publicly declared Dr Tauqir Shah — a civil servant who is supposed to be politically neutral — his younger brother. Shah was a powerful man in the province around whom executive powers revolved during the last six years. The secretaries of the provincial departments, who ought to run the government as per the rules of business, have been sidelined. Their offices have been reduced to post offices. The postings of senior police officers were not made by the IG Punjab but the CM secretariat. At present, more than 30 senior positions in the police department are lying vacant in search of pliable officers.
In Punjab, the most important decisions are taken on verbal orders conveyed to the officers by the secretary to the CM without written notes on file. This modus operandi has been invented so as to avoid legal responsibility for these acts. Those officers who do not fall in line are removed from their positions or get a scolding in official meetings. The CM secretariat, which has no role in administration under the rules of business, has replaced the authority of the civil secretariat. Several self-respecting senior officers have opted out from Punjab. Others have refused postings in the province. Neutrality of the officers is considered a crime. Thus, those who wish to save their honour stay silent in meetings over controversial policy decisions.
When orders reportedly came from Islamabad that the Punjab administration should strictly deal with Tahirul Qadri’s workers, several meetings were held in Lahore to ponder over the issue. In one such meeting, the provincial chief secretary told the political bigwigs not to go ahead with the proposed action as it might have grave consequences. The Commissioner of Lahore and the police chiefs of the province and the city also advised the same. This advice fell on deaf ears. Rana Sanaullah presided over the meeting on June 15 in Lahore and insisted on the operation for the removal of barriers. Dr Tauqir Shah was one of the participants. This was a clear message to the police that the CM had ordered this operation. The CM himself may not have said this in so many words. The government went ahead with its police operation through Rana Sanaullah and Dr Tauqir Shah at the top, and junior pliable police officers at the operational level.
The action took place in the absence of the police chief in the province. The IG Punjab, Khan Baig, had sought his transfer. The new IG, Mushtaq Sukhera, transferred from Balochistan, was yet to take charge. His plane landed in Lahore when the operation was over. Why was the Punjab administration in such a hurry? The result was disastrous because no senior officer was there to ensure observation of standard operating procedures made for such occasions. The Lahore police chief opposed the operation in the meeting but did not bow out. At least he could have gone on leave before the action was launched. He did not want to leave the plush posting and yet wished to stay clear of the responsibility.
The city police did not assess the situation and has no plan of action before storming the Idara Minhajul Quran. In a normal scenario, such an action is taken under the supervision of a senior police officer of the rank of grade-21 at the top but it started after midnight under the supervision of a Station House Officer (SHO) accompanying an assistant commissioner. Only when the police faced stiff resistance from the workers of the Idara Minhajul Quran, a number of Deputy Superintendents (DSPs) and SPs arrived on the spot piecemeal. Policemen from different police stations started gathering and they lacked the unity of command, acting in a haphazard manner. No senior officer had briefed them as to what they were supposed to do and what limits they needed to observe. The Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Operations, Lahore and Deputy Commissioner, Lahore rushed to the scene during the final phase of the operation when much of the damage had already been done.
The police did not follow the standard operating procedures for such occasions. No policeman was seen in riot gear. Normally, the SPs supervising such an action make armed policemen stay back and call them only when there is dire emergency. The police generally use 12-bore rifles to fire for the dispersal of a mob, whose cartridge shot from a distance only injures, not kills. In this case, the police used lethal automatic weapons.
Although no politician or senior police officer had ordered the policemen to open fire on the mob, the officials at the scene resorted to firing because they had firm orders to ‘teach a lesson’ to Qadri’s workers. They intended to please their political masters by demonstrating that they had acted firmly. One reason the police officials unabashedly used excessive force was that they were politically connected to the PML-N leaders. They take orders directly from their political masters, not their supervising officers. The posting of the SHOs in the police stations has become a prerogative of the PML-N leaders. The police stand politicised and have lost their professionalism and neutrality.
The killings took place for two reasons: one, the police action was politically motivated. It was aimed at terrorising the workers of Tahirul Qadri, not the enforcement of law. Two, senior police officers stayed away in the beginning and left the operation to junior officials who lacked the capacity to handle such a grave situation. The Lahore incident should serve as a wake-up call for the rulers. Police work has plummeted to this level because of a breakdown in the chain of command and massive political interference in their affairs. If the present way of governance continues, we should expect many more horrible incidents.
The writer is a freelance columnist