Only Sikh warden in Punjab traffic police terminated

LAHORE: The Punjab police on Thursday terminated the first and only Sikh traffic warden, Gulab Singh, over charges of provision of wrong information during his appointment in the police department.

Gulab Singh, the only Sikh warden in Pakistan, had joined the Punjab Traffic Police in 2006.

Ever since he joined the force, he remained conspicuous due to his unique appearance. The traffic police had arranged a special uniform for him to let him continue with his religious identity. However, Superintendent Police (SP) Traffic City Division Asif Siddique terminated Singh over allegations of misconduct.

The charges levelled against Singh stated that he remained absent from his duty for 116 days while at the time of recruitment he submitted forged documents. “There was a contradiction in Singh’s age as it was stated differently on his domicile, matriculation certificate and national identity card. His age mentioned on matric certificate and domicile was 1979 while it was 1981 on the identity card.”

It was also alleged that Gulab Singh had given interviews to different foreign and national media outlets while wearing the uniform, which gave a bad name to the department.

According to sources, he had been involved in many controversies since he joined the department. “Gulab Singh had moved to sessions court against a police inspector and two officials of Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) over the eviction of his property,” they said, adding that ETPB evicted his home after solid proves but Singh kept on maligning the police and ETPB officials.

An ETPB official seeking anonymity told Pakistan Today that Singh was involved in grabbing many ETPB properties in Nankana Sahib while he was using a langarkhana for the residential purpose which was later evicted by ETPB enforcement team.

It is pertinent to mention here that in 2008, Gulab Singh came to the limelight following the suspension over issuing a challan ticket to an ambulance driving on the wrong side of the road. The ambulance was carrying a patient who died before he reached the hospital.