ISLAMABAD: Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui of the Islamabad High Court on Thursday directed the Ministry of Interior to allocate 20 per cent posts of assistant sub-inspectors and constables in the capital police for the residents of Islamabad.

The court issued the direction on a petition filed by some residents of the federal capital.

In a petition, the residents contended that the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) police initiated the process for the recruitments in February.

As per the quota for the entire Pakistan, there were 45 seats to be filled on merit, 255 seats by candidates having domicile of Punjab, 58 from Sindh rural, 39 from Sindh urban, 59 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 304 from Balochistan, 21 from Gilgit-Baltistan and Fata and 10 from AJK.

The petition claimed that Islamabad was a separate territory but the authorities had not fixed any quota for the capital territory.

It requested the court to direct the interior secretary and the senior police officers to allocate a separate quota for the residents of Islamabad in the police.

Hearing another petition related to the release of an Afghan national who had been detained under the foreign act, the court directed the secretary interior to inform the court whether there was any policy on the Afghan nationals residing in Pakistan.

The police arrested Syed Habib under the foreign act, who obtained bail from the sessions court.

But the jail authorities, citing a notification of the interior ministry, refused to release him.

Hearing the petition seeking the release of Mr Habib, the Islamabad High Court directed the secretary interior to depute an officer not less than the rank of joint secretary to brief the court.

He also directed the interior ministry to submit the government’s policy on the Afghan national to the court on the next date of hearing on September 14.

Published in Dawn, September 4th, 2015

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