SC rejects fresh report on police investigation funds

Published August 1, 2015
A three-member bench of the apex court, headed by Justice Amir Hani Muslim, was hearing an application regarding withholding of funds meant for the investigation wing of police and their disbursement for other purposes. —Online/File
A three-member bench of the apex court, headed by Justice Amir Hani Muslim, was hearing an application regarding withholding of funds meant for the investigation wing of police and their disbursement for other purposes. —Online/File

KARACHI: The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Friday threw out a second consecutive report submitted by the Sindh police chief on distribution of funds for police and directed the chief secretary to appear before the court on Aug 4.

A three-member bench of the apex court, headed by Justice Amir Hani Muslim, was hearing an application regarding withholding of funds meant for the investigation wing of police and their disbursement for other purposes.

Earlier, inspector-general of police Ghulam Haider Jamali and additional IG (finance) Javed Mehar appeared before the apex court. The IG submitted the fresh report on the disbursement of funds released by the Sindh government after the previous report had been rejected by the bench at the last hearing.

The bench members became visibly irritated when they found the police chief and the additional IG remained unable to provide the required details.

While going through a portion of the report, Justice Muslim remarked that tentatively they picked one district of Hyderabad, in which, according to the police chief 3,616 criminal cases were registered from July 2014 to June 2015 and Rs3 million was disbursed and another Rs2 million was further disbursed after court’s intervention.

The court observed that the figures were calculated and it emerged that around Rs829.64 had been disbursed for each case. If this was the money disbursed for investigation, then the investigating officer could never investigate the matter properly, it remarked.

Responding to a bench query, finance department officials said the police had requested for Rs316 million to meet investigation cost. Of that amount, they paid Rs140 million and the supplementary budget of Rs75 million was also released in April 2015.

The bench was informed that out of the said amount, the police could not utilise Rs12 million. When the judges confronted, the IG could not offer any explanation as to why the money was not utilised.

“The level of corruption has increased threefold in the police since you have assumed the charge,” Justice Muslim remarked while addressing IG Jamali.

The court further observed it appears that there was no system within the police to oversee all this while the additional IG finance had no expertise and frequent transfer and postings within the police had added to the ill-governance.

At this stage, advocate-general Abdul Fateh Malik intervened and requested for time to convey the displeasure of court to the competent authority.

According to the court order, there were serious complaints against the senior police officers. They were brought to the notice of the AG who said that he would also convey it to the relevant quarters.

Justice Muslim told the IG that living conditions in the colonies meant for the policemen had worsened.

The bench questioned the police chief whether the funds provided to the department were meant only to buy helicopters and armoured personnel carriers instead of strengthening the force.

The court also rejected the fresh report filed by the IG and directed the chief secretary to appear before it on Aug 4 and inform about the police working as no serious efforts had been made by the police chief to improve it.

The bench also ordered the IG to attend the next hearing with the required details. The finance authorities was directed to provide the required details on budget allocations to the police force.

Published in Dawn, August 1st, 2015

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