ISLAMABAD: The office of the Islamabad police has been lying vacant for almost a week due to a tussle between the district administration, the interior ministry with the police over the Police Order 2002 brought into force by ex-IGP Akbar Nasir Khan in 2022.

The Police Order proclaimed by the ex-IG empowered the police chief and placed the capital police under the interior ministry instead of the capital administration.

This resulted in an ongoing rift between the three departments, with the interior ministry voiding multiple promotions approved by the then-IGP. This eventually resulted in two major groups: the police chief on one side, and the capital admin and the ministry on the other.

The ex-IGP Islamabad promulgated the Police Order 2002 in 2022, but it is yet to be approved by parliament and the president. The authorities concerned did not issue a notification either. Before the promulgation of the Police Order, the capital police worked under Police Rules.

Capital police without their chief for almost a week; commissioner tells them to approach interior secretary for acting IG’s notification

The recent departure of Dr Akbar Nasir has renewed this power struggle between the police and the commissioner’s office. The outgoing police chief was bid farewell in a ceremony on Saturday. The ceremony was also supposed to welcome the new chief but due to unknown reasons, the Lahore DIG operations did not take charge.

According to the Esta Code (Civil Establishment Code) and Rules of Business 1973, the IGP could have appointed the senior-most officer to look after the top post for 90 days or till the appointment of a regular police chief. Since the IGP failed to appoint his stopgap replacement and the new police chief appeared reluctant to take charge, the most senior officer of the capital police will look after the office of the IGP as per the aforementioned rules.

The Police Rules in vogue before the promulgation of the police order by the former IGP had empowered the commissioner to notify the appointment of a temporary police head, but since the Police Order is in the field, the commissioner has excused himself from exercising the powers he had under the police rules.

After the police approached the commissioner to notify the acting IGP, he told them to approach the interior secretary as the Police Order had empowered the latter for the job.

After the commissioner snub, the police have yet to approach the ministry for a stopgap arrangement.

However, the senior most DIGs — two from 29 CPT and one from 30 CPT — are yet to obey the Esta Code and the Rules of Business 1973 which say that the senior most officer will automatically become the acting IGP in case the office remains vacant.

On the other hand, a 19-grade officer Shahzad Nadeem Bukhari, who is working at a grade-20 post of DIG Operations, is using the powers of the IGP as well as the power that had been taken away from him by ex-IGP Dr Akbar Nasir Khan.

Recently, the three senior officers — DIG Headquarters Hassan Raza, DIG Security Owais Ahmed, and Safe City head DIG Mohammad Shoaib — had approached the commissioner for a 15-day leave because they did not want to ‘salute’ a junior officer, DIG Operations from CTP-31, of the Lahore police, who was named the new police chief. The request for the leave was turned down and the application was returned to the DIGs.

The commissioner’s office asked them to approach the interior secretary to seek leave, saying the commissioner lost its powers to the interior secretary after the promulgation of the Police Order. After the leave request was rejected, the DIGs resumed their duties.

It may be noted that the police officers had approached the administration for a 15-day leave after the approval of their five-day leave by the outgoing police chief. The IGP can only approve a leave of up to five days.

Police spokesperson Taqi Jawad told Dawn that the IGP was still vacant and the leave request of the three DIGs had also been turned down.

He did not comment on other queries and said he’d respond after consulting the relevant officials. However, the response was still awaited as the story went to press.

Published in Dawn, April 5th, 2024