LAHORE: The two senior police officials held guilty in an inquiry carried out by a three-member committee of senior policemen in the wake of the Punjab Institute of Cardiology attack are likely to be transferred in a couple of weeks.

Headed by additional IG Punjab police Azhar Hameed Khokhar, the committee recommended action against Lahore Operations SSP Mohammad Naveed and Civil Lines Operations SP Dost Mohammad Khosa for their failure to thwart attack by the charged lawyers at the PIC (Lahore) which later led to the death of three patients.

Internal Accountability Branch DIG Imran Mahmood and Assistant Inspector General (AIG) Logistics Athar Ismail were also members of the committee which had been tasked with probing the PIC incident to evaluate role of the police.

A senior police official told Dawn that the committee submitted its inquiry report some 40 days after the tragic incident when a mob of lawyers entered the premises of the cardiac hospital and ransacked the public property besides attacking the employees.

Probe panel spares CCPO

The committee [surprisingly] could not find any fault of Lahore Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) DIG Zulfiqar Hameed who had not visited throughout the day to lead the force when the lawyers attacked the hospital.

Being chief of the Lahore police, his absence [from the incident place] had drawn strong criticism from the respective quarters, the official said.

He said the committee in its findings declared that the SSP Operations, who was leading the force as commander at that time, delayed action which led to the unpleasant incident.

The committee further defined his role saying he had avoided use of force to stop the attacking lawyers from entering the premises.

The SSP was held guilty during course of the inquiry that neither he issued order to his subordinates to use force nor he contacted his seniors to get instruction to deal with the emergency situation.

The official said the committee concluded that Mr Naveed was lacking capacity to take decision at the spot, holding him responsible for the failure of police in handling the incident.

About the Civil Lines SP, he said, the committee was of the view that Dost Mohammad committed “criminal negligence” for being absent from his duty.

To utter surprise of the panel, the police official said, the Civil Lines SP was busy receiving his guests at the Lahore International Airport ignoring the fact that the issue was highly sensitive because hundreds of charged lawyers carrying clubs were marching towards the cardiac hospital.

Even, he remained absent later in the day when the issue got viral on the media, drawing strong criticism from all sides over failure of police in thwarting attack.

On questioning by the panel of police officers, Mr Dost Mohammad failed to justify his willful absence from duty despite having senior position in a disciplined force, the official said.

As the committee submitted its report to the Punjab government through the IGP, the senior command at CPO decided to transfer the in-question police officers.

The official also shared some ‘controversies’ in reference to the inquiry committee saying that the SSP Operations designation has been under question for being a “dummy slot”.

He said since Mohammad Naveed was not enjoying powers and mandate being SSP Operations, the punishment awarded to him by the committee was being taken as an excessive step.

The police circles believed that in the current set-up of Lahore police, the DIG Operations and the CCPO were enjoying all powers to take important decisions in respect of law and order and other administrative matters.

Secondly, one of the members of the committee was being named as next SSP Operations Lahore, he said.

The official said before the PIC incident, the Lahore’s senior command had made some efforts for the transfer of Mohammad Naveed to appoint officer of choice.

For the purpose, the Lahore’s police authorities had discussed some names of the police officers including Shahzad Asif and Athar Ismail (a member of the committee probing the PIC case).

In these circumstances, the committee’s decision was not hailed by the police circles, the official said. He added that the police circles, however, endorsed action recommended against the Civil Lines SP for committing gross negligence.

Published in Dawn, January 23rd, 2020