LAHORE: Over 10-year-long legal battle in the out-of-turn promotion cases finally ended after the Establishment Division, Islamabad, withdrew the PSP status of 16 senior police officers following the decision of a Supreme Court’s larger bench.

The establishment division issued on Monday notifications referring the judgment announced last month wherein it had declared the out-of-turn promotion of the police officers illegal and against the spirit of justice.

The bench was headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Saqib Nisar.

According to the notifications, [a copy is also available with Dawn], the establishment division withdrew PSP status of 16 senior police officers after they were granted out-of-turn promotions.

The larger bench was hearing the appeals of the “affected police officers” against the Supreme Court’s previous judgment given in 2017 and 2013, respectively declaring their out-of-turn promotions illegal.

After withdrawal of their PSP status, all these police officers have been reverted to the rank of their batch mates.

Of them, Akthar Umar Hayat Laleika got out-of-turn promotion to the rank of DIG and currently he was serving at National Counter Terrorism Authority (NCTA).

Most of them were reverted to the rank of DSPs and inspectors. They included ex-SSP CIA Lahore Umar Virk, SPs Amir Taimoor, Naeemul Hassan Khan, Faisal Gulzar, Rai Zameerul Haq, Shahid Razaq Qureshi, Ijaz Shafi, Rana Shahid Pervez, Qasim Khan, Awais Malik, Tahir Maqsood, Karamatullah Malik, Mukhtar Hussain Shah, Farooq Ahmad and Khalid Rauf.

A police official privy to the information told Dawn that a majority of these officers had been enjoying prime field positions in Punjab. Some of them had served as district police officers (DPOs), he said.

In their pending appeals, they had defended the decisions of the police authorities of rewarding them with promotions for their gallantry.

The official said the three-member SC bench in 2013 had dismissed their appeals against the SHC judgment directing the then government to ensure implementation of the decision by issuing notification of their reversion.

The police officers kept on filing appeals in the courts, coming up with one justification after another to prove their stance but to no avail, he said.

However, the SC larger bench on May 13 this year dismissed their appeals, setting one-month deadline for the government to implement its decision in letter and spirit.

The establishment division notified withdrawal of the PSP status of these 16 police officers just a few days ahead of the SC deadline.

Published in Dawn, June 12th, 2018