LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Wednesday granted one month to the Punjab government for the constitution of public safety commissions as envisaged in Police Order 2002 after a notification of appointment of a permanent IGP was submitted before it.

As Chief Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah resumed hearing of a petition questioning the appointment of an acting IGP in the province and non-implementation of Police Order 2002, Additional Advocate General Anwaar Hussain presented the notification and said Addl IG Operations retired Capt Arif Nawaz had been posted provincial police officer (PPO) filling the office with a permanent incumbent in compliance with the court’s direction.

When asked by the court, the law officer maintained that the newly-appointed PPO had more than three years in his superannuation.

Senior lawyer Asma Jahangir assisted the court as amicus curiae and said fixing the tenure of PPO for three years would disturb the rights of other senior officers.

Petitioner’s counsel Saad Rasool pointed out that the government, despite the court order, failed to constitute public safety commissions at provincial and district level. At this, Ms Jahangir said there were many procedural difficulties in the formation of the safety commissions as it required consultation between the government and the opposition leader.

The law officer requested the court to grant more time to the government for the constitution of the public safety commissions. The chief justice allowed the request and adjourned hearing of the case for a month.

On previous hearing, the chief justice had suspended the notification of appointment of acting IGP retired Capt Muhammad Usman Khattak as a permanent PPO for being made in violation of Police Order 2002.

The chief justice had observed that the mandate of law as well as orders of the court had been blatantly violated in the appointment of Mr Khattak who was going to retire in three months and 13 days.

A citizen, Abdul Razzaq, had filed the petition seeking enforcement of a number of provisions of Police Order 2002 and challenging the appointment of Mr Khattak as acting IGP. The petitioner contended that appointments of IGPs and CCPOs should be made on the recommendations of the duly constituted National Public Safety Commission.

He said the commission had not been properly constituted since the promulgation of Police Order in 2002.

Published in Dawn, July 27th, 2017