May 08, 2008	Thursday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 2, 1429

LAHORE, May 7: A full bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Wednesday ordered the Punjab IGP to adhere strictly to the Police Order 2002 in appointing district police officers (DPOs) and making transfers and postings.

Justice M Bilal Khan, Justice Syed Shabbar Raza Rizvi and Justice Zafar Iqbal Chaudhry issued these directions while entertaining petitions challenging the law and order situation in the province and seeking appointments of police officers according to the police order.

The bench sought information about the grade-19 officers, who could not be appointed as DPOs. The bench also sought the information after IGP Shaukat Javed admitted in response to a query that 17 DPOs of grade-18 were appointed contrary to the police order. According to the police order, a DPO should be a grade-19 officer.

The IGP and Punjab home secretary had appeared before the bench on its directions to inform it about measures taken to implement the court order to make appointments of all police officers in the province according to the police order.

“That means half of the DPOs in the province were functioning against the police order,” Justice Bilal observed.

The court ordered the IGP to make all appointments of DPOs according to the police order, otherwise the postings would be declared illegal.

The IGP submitted that because of non-availability of grade-19 officers, grade-18 officers were appointed as DPOs.

On a court query as to who appointed these officers in violation of the court order, the IGP said some of the DPOs were appointed by him and some others by the Punjab government.

On another query, the IGP said he was to inform the court about these appointments.

The bench observed that in the presence of a specific order, he should have taken permission from the court before making appointments. The bench observed the court would ensure the implementation of the police order in letter and spirit irrespective of anyone's liking or disliking.

The IGP said the problem with the appointments arose as some of the grade-19 officers lacked aptitude, some expressed inability to be appointed as DPOs while the third category was the officers the police department considered ‘unsuitable’ for the slot.

At this the court ordered the IGP to submit details of such officers on next hearing date.

The bench also directed the home secretary to inform the court that what the provincial government had done with regard to making appointments of DPOs of grade-19 and steps of the federal establishment to this effect.

Petitioner-lawyer Safdar Shaheen Prizada on Wednesday filed an application for issuing directions to the IGP to inform the court that how many police officials were performing duties at the places of their own choice since long, particularly from sub-inspectors to DSPs who, he said, took money from the poor and the helpless.

He also prayed the court to seek information regarding the number of registered false criminal cases and fake police encounters.

The court had asked the IGP to file a reply till May 28.