KARACHI: The Supreme Court on Friday directed the establishment secretary to take action against senior officials of the Sindh police having patchy service record and sought compliance report within two months.

The secretary establishment turned up before the three-judge bench of the apex court headed by Justice Gulzar Ahmed on Friday and the bench expressed displeasure on a report which said that the inquiry officer had dropped proceedings against six police officials of grade 18 and above.

Justice Ahmed asked the establishment secretary as to how big fishes had been left out when evidence was also available against them and whether influence was also being used in this matter.

The bench ordered fresh inquiry against former provincial police officer of Sindh Ghulam Haider Jamali and others and directed the establishment secretary to complete the process within two months and file the compliance report.

Earlier, the provincial authorities and an apex court-appointed inquiry committee’s head through the reports informed the apex court in December that 12,000 police officials were found involved in misuse of powers and had patchy backgrounds and about the action taken against them.

However, the provincial authorities said that since they could not take action against the police officers above grade 17, their cases were sent to the establishment division for disciplinary proceedings in accordance with the law and service rules.

Meanwhile, the same bench summoned the chairman of the National Highway Authority (NHA) at the next hearing in a matter pertaining to rising accidents on Jamshoro-Sehwan Road.

The bench observed that the roads were in pathetic condition due to misappropriation of funds and directed the NHA chief to appear in person along with a report within two weeks regarding measurers taken in this regard.

Published in Dawn, July 21st, 2018