–SC summons Rizwan Gondal, Punjab IG and RPO on Friday
ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar on Thursday took suo motu notice of the controversial transfer of Pakpattan District Police Officer (DPO) Rizwan Umar Gondal after an alleged argument with the ex-husband of Prime Minister Imran Khan’s wife, Bushra.
A three-member bench headed by the CJP will hear the case on Friday. The court has summoned Rizwan Gondal, the Punjab Inspector General of Police (IGP) and the Regional Police Officer (RPO) to appear before the bench.
The former DPO had reportedly refused to apologise to Khawar Maneka, the former husband of Pakistan’s first lady, over an incident on August 23 in which police officers had chased and intercepted his car after he sped away from a checkpoint.
“Khawar was given a signal to stop at a picket but he didn’t do so. Following which, the police chased and intercepted his car,” the sources told Pakistan Today.
Maneka then reportedly called DPO Gondal and asked him to suspend the officers who had stopped his car. However, Gondal refused to initiate an inquiry, saying that his personnel had done nothing wrong.
Later, Gondal and the RPO were reportedly summoned by Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar at his 7-Club Road office and told to go to Maneka’s Dera (village outhouse) and apologise to him. The senior police officer refused to do so, sources had told Pakistan Today.
Gondal, who is known to be an honest and upright officer, was then ‘transferred’ by the Punjab Police IGP Syed Kaleem Imam.
After news of the senior police officer’s ‘transfer’ went viral on social media and drew the people’s ire, the Punjab IGP in a statement denied that DPO Gondal was removed from his post due to pressure from ‘certain quarters’.
“Gondal was removed for misreporting an incident in which police officials misbehaved with a citizen,” the IGP said in his statement.
Moreover, Punjab Information Minister Fayazul Hasan Chohan on Tuesday said that CM Buzdar and PM Imran Khan had no role in the transfer of the DPO.
“There were complaints against the DPO from quite some time. The matter which is police’s internal matter has been resolved,” he said while addressing a press conference.