Two months have passed since the Supreme Court (SC) ordered that police officers who were promoted out of turn be demoted to their original ranks, but the Sindh government has still not implemented the apex court’s orders in letter and spirit.
In the past two months, the provincial government has only demoted inspector-level police officers to their original ranks while higher ranked police officers are still enjoying the perks which come with their offices. To implement the SC’s orders, the Sindh government in collaboration with police had started a drive against the out-of-turn promotions, but the campaign came to a halt after political interventions occurred to prevent high ranked officers from being demoted.
There are still 57 Deputy Superintendents of Police (DSPs), Senior Superintendents of Police (SSPs), Superintendents of Police (SPs) and one Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) who are yet to be demoted.
Sources told Pakistan Today that these police officers enjoyed political support, which was the only hurdle in the way of implementing the SC’s orders. DIG Dost Ali Baloch, SPs, SSPs and DSPs were among those 57 police officers who are enjoying the perks of a high rank in opposition to the apex court’s orders.
According to sources, the Sindh government had formed a committee to follow the instructions of the SC but after its first meeting, the committee did not meet again and the matter went onto the back-burner.
The SC order reads as follows: “In pursuance of the following order passed by the Honorable Supreme Court of Pakistan in Suo Motu Case No. 03 of 2012:
“This court is Human Rights Case Nos. 1088 of 2010 and 6679-P of 2011 has already observed that no shoulder promotions should be allowed, therefore, we expect from the Inspector General of Police and Chief Secretaries of the provinces that they shall immediately take action and all those police officers/officials to whom shoulder promotions have been given shall be demoted to their original ranks and if there is shortage of officers /officials, the relevant rule should be followed for promoting them to the next higher grades purely on merit and in accordance with law”.
In this order, the apex court addressed the inspector general (IG) police and chief secretaries of all provinces to take action against shoulder promotions and demote the beneficiaries to their original ranks. The SC has ordered the formation of committees at the provincial level to review the unfair promotions of every police officer individually and demote them to their original ranks. The court ordered the provinces to check which police officer was given out of turn promotion in which year, the seniority of the said police officer in his grade, his cadre and the grade of his cadre fellows. The apex court ordered the provincial government to demote the beneficiaries of unfair promotions by keeping the correct criteria in view.
