KARACHI: The Supreme Court on Friday directed the federal and provincial authorities to conclude inquiry into illegal recruitments in police by 21 senior officials of the department within a month and submit a report in this regard.

Headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, a three-judge bench also ordered that the head of the inquiry committee shall not be transferred till the investigation was completed.

The chief justice warned that the authorities concerned would have to appear in court to explain their position in case the court’s order was not complied with.

Earlier, Sindh Advocate General Barrister Zamir Ghumro informed the bench, also comprising Justices Faisal Arab and Sajjad Ali Shah, that that 2,700 police personnel recruited illegally were fired.

He submitted that as many as 1,750 personnel took the National Testing Service exam again, of which only 141 candidates could pass the test and their services were retained.

The provincial government’s chief law officer said that investigation against nine police officials was pending before the establishment division.

Sentence set aside

Meanwhile, another bench of the apex court set aside the life imprisonments of two accused in a double murder case, while upholding the life term awarded to the third convict.

An antiterrorism court had awarded Dost Muhammad, Nawaz and Rafiq life imprisonments after they were found guilty of killing a man over non-payment of extortion in 2010 in Dadu district.

The convicts through their counsel challenged their punishment in the apex court after the high court had upheld their convictions awarded by the trial court. In their appeals, they asked the apex court to set aside the judgment of the trial court and order their release as the case of prosecution was full of doubts.

Their counsel contended that the ATC did not follow due procedure while convicting them.

After hearing arguments from both sides, the bench headed by Justice Asif Saeed Khosa, set aside the convictions of Dost Muhammad and Nawaz maintaining that there were no concrete evidences against them.

The bench, however, rejected the plea of convict Rafiq and ruled that he would complete his term. The court ruled that it did not find any reason to set aside Rafiq’s term.

Former KDA DG’s bail rejected

Meanwhile, a division bench of the Sindh High Court rejected the bail application of Karachi Development Authority former director general Nasir Abbas and others in a case pertaining to illegal conversion of residential plots into commercial plots.

Headed by Chief Justice Ahmed Ali M. Shaikh, the bench pronounced its verdict that was reserved earlier on March 9 after conclusion of arguments from all sides.

The former KDA DG along with the officials of KDA, and others were being tried in the reference filed by the National Accountability Bureau for allegedly transferring many plots meant for residential purpose to commercial use.

The counsel for Nasir Abbas said that the charges levelled against his client were baseless as he was never involved in embezzling or misusing power.

He said that the former KDA chief was arrested by the NAB even before the completion of inquiry.

He requested the court to release him on bail.

The NAB prosecutor, however, opposed the bail plea and submitted that the accused with the connivance of each other had caused a loss of Rs385 million to the national exchequer through ‘embezzling’ the land of the city.

He asked the court to dismiss the bail applications contending that there were sufficient evidences that Abbas and others were involved in the offence.

Published in Dawn, March 17th, 2018