KARACHI: As many as 928 policemen from all over the country inducted into the National Highways and Motorway Police on deputation were on Tuesday ordered to be repatriated to their parent departments by the Sindh High Court.

A division bench headed by Justice Shafi Muhammad Siddiqui also directed the authorities concerned to ensure the repatriation of the deputed police officials within four months and file a compliance report in court.

The bench was hearing a constitutional petition of Zulfiqar Ahmed Seher, a Motorway police officer, and his colleagues who challenged the induction of officers from other departments into the force.

According to the petitioners, they were appointed as patrol officers in the Motorway police in 2001 and their services were regularised later in 2002. They said that a large number of officers from different departments and provinces were posted in the Motorway police on deputation.

They said that their seniority was adversely affected due to the induction of officers on deputation.

They asked the court to direct the respondent authorities to immediately repatriate all officers inducted into the Motorway police on deputation from different departments.

The chief federal law officer submitted a report stating that initially as many as 527 officers from different departments of all provinces were inducted into the force. Of them, he said, 59 officers either died or were retired, while services of 468 others were regularised under the rules.

The report further said that as many as 928 officers were posted on deputation in the Motorway police. They included 346 officers from Punjab, 214 from Sindh, 145 from Balochistan, 84 from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, eight from Gilgit-Biltistan and 26 officers from Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

The federal government law officer told the judges that the repatriation of officers to their respective parent departments required some time as the Motorway police was short of staff.

He asked the court to grant at least six months for the repatriation of officers on deputation as time was required to initiate the process of filling the vacant posts.

However, the court directed him to ensure the repatriation of all officers on deputation to their parent department within four months.

Petition against toy guns

Another bench directed a civil right campaigner to satisfy the court on the maintainability of his petition seeking a ban on the import, manufacture, sale and purchase of toy guns in the country.

The petition was filed by the secretary general of the United Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, Rana Faizul Hasan, who asked the court to direct the federal and provincial authorities to ensure a complete ban on the sale and purchase of toy guns.

He submitted that the toy guns, which included pistols, revolvers, Kalashnikov, etc, were variably available in the country and leaving negative impacts on children.

He recalled that the Sindh Assembly had earlier adopted a unanimous resolution against the manufacture, import, sale and purchase of toy guns in the province.

The petitioner said that over one million toy guns worth over Rs100m were sold in the city alone on Eid.

Published in Dawn, September 2nd, 2015

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