KARACHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected the inquiry reports filed by the provincial police officer and chief secretary, and referred the matter about police negligence during the kidnapping of Awais Ali Shah to the establishment secretary for a departmental inquiry.

The apex court also asked the federal authorities why the facilities of geofencing and Global Positioning System (GPS) locators had not been provided to the provinces.

A detailed report was also sought from the chief secretary on the installation of poor quality closed-circuit television cameras in Karachi.

Matter about police negligence during the kidnapping of Barrister Awais Ali Shah referred for a departmental inquiry

A five-judge SC bench, headed by Justice Amir Hani Muslim, took up the implementation proceedings of the apex court judgement on Karachi suo motu law and order case and a petition regarding the kidnapping of Barrister Shah, the son of Sindh High Court chief justice.

At the outset, inspector general of police A.D. Khawaja submitted a report about the inquiry conducted by Karachi East DIG Kamran Fazal against police officials in and below the rank of BS-16. The report said 24 police officers and personnel were held at fault and their cases have been referred to the competent authority for initiating a departmental enquiry while show-cause notices were also issued to the officials in question.

In his report about another group of police officers belonging to the rank of BS-17 and above in the Police Service of Pakistan, chief secretary Mohammad Siddique Memon said the fact-finding enquiry was conducted by chairman of the anti-corruption establishment, Sindh, Ghulam Qadir Thebo.

However, the bench threw out both the reports with the observation that besides the manner in which it has been conducted, the conclusion drawn was not proper.

Under these circumstances, the judges said that they were referring the matter to the establishment secretary for holding a departmental inquiry against the senior police officers in question for their vis-à-vis role on the day of abduction.

“For the purpose of this departmental enquiry, the secretary establishment will be at liberty to join any other officer of the said PSP group against whom any material surfaced during the enquiry, other than these four officers, namely Dr Muhammad Farooq Ahmed SSP, Amjad Hayat SP, Dr Assad Ejaz SP, and Muhammad Tariq Nawaz ASP,” it added.

The court ordered that the inquiry shall be completed at an early date and its report be submitted for perusal.

A report of the attorney general was placed before the bench in response to an query made by the court on July 15 regarding police access to Nadra database and GPS locators.

The IG informed the bench that the police force had only two 2G-locators available with them, whereas they required 3G and 4G locators for proper investigations. He expressed the hope that this problem would be solved in parity to other provinces.

The provincial police officer submitted that at the least one locator for each of the six police divisions was needed.

The SC bench said that the attorney general shall intervene in this process and would submit a report reflecting the reasoning as to why the Sindh police should not be provided with more than two locators.

Regarding the provision of facility of access to Nadra’s database and geo-fencing to the Sindh police, the bench directed the attorney general to appear on July 28 with instructions from the relevant quarters as to why these facilities, which were crucial for the purpose of investigation, should not be extended to different provinces.

The five-judge bench also directed the federal interior secretary, Arif Ahmed Khan, who was present in the court, to appear again on next hearing after discussing the matter with the relevant quarters.

The chief secretary filed a report regarding the implementation of SC’s orders passed in the main Karachi law and order case and the bench kept aside the report for discussion on next date.

The chief secretary and IG assured the court that voice recorder of 15-Madadgar would be made functional within 15 days. The chief secretary said the money had already been put at the police chief’s disposal for purchasing required equipment.

Responding to a court query regarding functioning of the CCTV cameras in Karachi, the IG said that in 2010 the police had installed two-megapixel cameras which had poor resolution while no provision had been kept for their maintenance.

The apex court asked the chief secretary to submit a detail report on CCTV cameras installed in Karachi as to who advised installation of the CCTV cameras of such specification and the amount paid by the Sindh government towards its cost.

The bench further ordered the chief secretary to also submit original summaries floated in this regard and the approvals granted at times by the competent authority. A comprehensive report be filed in this regard by July 26, it added.

For submission of report of a probe into the parole issue, the apex court granted a period of 10 days to the chief secretary on his request for some time.

Meanwhile, the bench dismissed various applications, which had become infructuous.

Published in Dawn, July 22nd, 2016