LAHORE: The Establishment Division on Tuesday issued a notification to dismiss former Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Mohammad Ali Nekokara, who had argued against using force against marchers last year during the Islamabad sit-in.

The notification for his dismissal today said he has been removed over "inefficiency and misconduct".

"Mr Mohammad Ali Nekokara shall have the right of appeal to the Appellate Authority under the Civil Servants (Appeal) Rules 1977, within a period of 30 days from the receipt of this Notification," read the notification.

A copy of the notification - DawnNews screengrab

The notification was issued by the Establishment Division on behalf of the government after an inquiry committee on this matter ruled in favour of Nekokara's dismissal from his job.

Know more: Govt looking to axe police officer for ‘doing his job’?

In August last year, Nekokara had written a detailed letter to Interior Secretary Shahid Khan, emphasising the importance of not using force when Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) announced their decision to march on Parliament House.

The interior ministry under Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan had discussed whether to stop Imran Khan and Dr Tahirul Qadri by force or let them march into the high-security zone.

Also read: PTI comes out in support of Nekokara

In his correspondence, Nekokara mentioned the Model Town incident, where the unnecessary use of force had led to the deaths of more than a dozen innocent people in Lahore and created grave problems for the provincial government.

The former SSP made his case on the basis “that the use of force on a crowd of more than 30,000, including women and children, by a loosely integrated force consisting of police units from Punjab police, AJK police and Railways police in addition to Rangers and Levies and Islamabad police, entailed serious risk of misuse of authority and disproportionate force”.

A three-member inquiry committee including Foreign Secretary Aizaz Chaudhry, Secretary to the Prime Minister Nadeem Hassan Asif and Inspector General of Police (IGP) Balochistan Mohammad Amlish, was initiated against him in November, the main charge being refusal to obey an order from his seniors.

Sources told Dawn earlier that other charges levelled against the police officer included misrepresentation of facts, refusal to use force, leaking information to the media, causing the demoralisation of the police force under his command and miscalculations on the impact of the use of force.