HYDERABAD: The Additional Inspector General of Police, Hyderabad region, Dr Jameel Ahmed, is in hot water again following issuance of the prime minister’s directives which look damning for the BS-21 officer, who is to retire in August this year.

According to the May 5 letter, information was placed before the PM that Dr Jameel Ahmed, presently posted as the AIG Hyderabad Region, is allegedly involved in financial and moral corruption, misuse of authority and undesirable activities.

“The officer is heading fifteen districts and allegedly collecting Rs1.5m to Rs2m from each district on monthly basis besides taking share on posting/transfers of under command police officials,” reads the letter.

It said: “He is also stated to have illegally occupied 3-rooms at circuit house Hyderabad, his two sons are misusing their father’s position and carrying out firing practice in circuit house which is located in a populated area”.

“In view of above, PM has desired that Establishment Division, being cadre administrator, shall take further action to formally proceed against the officer, on the aforesaid allegations, in terms of rule 18(2) of Civil Servants (Efficiency & Discipline) Rules 2020,” the letter concluded.

Officer rejects allegations contained in ‘PM’s letter’

The letter is issued under the signature of Mohammad Azam Khan, PM’s secretary. Mr Khan is said to be a batch mate of Dr Jameel Ahmed as well. No denial has so far been issued by Sindh IGP Mushtaq Mahar.

Chief Secretary Mumtaz A. Shah, however, told Dawn on Tuesday evening over phone that “a letter is received from establishment division regarding Dr Jameel Ahmed which has been forwarded to Sindh home department for an inquiry into the matter.

“Once this inquiry report is received, we will forward it to the establishment division,” he said.

When asked since the AIG is a BS-21 officer, some officer of BS-22 was supposed to hold the inquiry, the CS was of the view that the home department would just submit its report on the allegations and “a formal inquiry may then be conducted by the establishment division”.

AIG Dr Jameel has chosen not to respond to Dawn’s queries. Several TV channels have already been running the story since Monday. However, a statement on his behalf has been shared in regional police’s WhatsApp group, questioning authenticity of the May 5 letter.

The AIG terms it “unverified and purported to have been issued from PM’s office only to level baseless allegations” against him.

He rejected the charges as just hypothetical and based on personal wishes.

Dr Jameel Ahmed has not been out of the woods ever since he was posted here, facing one controversy after the other. He had to face embarrassment when his sons humiliated circuit house employees, locked them up in rooms and maltreated them.

Then came damning observation by the Sindh IG regarding a cell established by the AIG Hyderabad Region. On April 9, IG Mahar disbanded the ‘regional crime control cell (R3C) observing that it had been “maliciously” created in contravention of the rules and directions issued time and again by IG’s office.

Following disbandment of the R3C, police officers of the region were required to submit a certificate that no such cell existed within their respective district.

Names of Dr Kamran Fazal, the sitting AIG Sukkur region, AIGs Farhat Junejo, Arif Hanif and Muzaffar Sheikh remained in circulation as his likely replacement.

Hyderabad region comprises 15 districts ever since the regional police setup had been created in 2019 by the then IG, Syed Kaleem Imam, bifurcating Sindh (barring Karachi) into two regions — Hyderabad and Sukkur.

Published in Dawn, July 23rd, 2021