LAHORE: The Lahore High Court denied Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Ghulam Mahmood Dogar’s plea to overturn the federal government’s decisions to suspend and transfer him.

Justice Muzamil Akhtar Shabbir questioned the CCPO’s lawyer at the beginning of the hearing on how a writ could be maintained against the transfer and suspension of a civil servant.

The judge observed that the service tribunal should handle the situation. Citing a Supreme Court decision, petitioner’s counsel Sohail Shafique stated that a transfer order based on mala fide could be subject to judicial scrutiny.

However, Justice Shabbir observed that the judgment cited by the counsel was specific to that instance and not an overall directive. The petition was also contested by an additional attorney general, who argued that the petitioner could only litigate the case before the service tribunal.

The judge disposed of the case and told the petitioner to seek redress in the suggested forum.

The petition claims that the respondent government suspended the petitioner on Nov 5 without giving the petitioner any notice to show cause or justification.

It says that the filing of an FIR against two federal ministers at the Green Town police station led to a pattern of victimisation of the petitioner by the federal government, which is biased against the petitioner. This pattern includes the challenged notification.

The petition claims that after the FIR was filed, the petitioner was instructed to appear before the federal government the following day so that he could be victimised by an investigation that was launched against him that was false, frivolous, and vexatious based on unfounded allegations with the mala fide intention of punishing him.

It requested that the court invalidate the contested Nov 5 notification as well as the notifications on the petitioner’s transfer.

Published in Dawn, November 9th, 2022