KARACHI: More than 800 policemen face dismissal from service as an inquiry committee has found that they were ‘illegally’ appointed and former provincial police chief had played a ‘criminal role’ in their appointment, according to officials.

An official who was part of the committee formed on the orders of the Supreme Court a few months ago told Dawn on Saturday that the committee had prepared its report after weeks of investigations and detected illegal appointments in the Sindh Reserve Police (SRP), Hyderabad, in the first phase, which were made during two consecutive years. All of them were appointed under direct involvement of the former inspector general, he said.

“A total of 820 employees of the SRP have been traced as appointed illegally,” said a senior police officer who was a member of the committee.

“The DIG of SRP has been asked to issue all such appointees show-cause notices which will lead to their dismissal from service. The issuance of notices has been initiated and within a couple of months the process of dismissal will be completed,” he said, adding that the committee was busy winding up its job.

He said the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had recently mentioned the committee’s report before the Supreme Court during the hearing of a case about investigation into corruption and illegal appointments in the Sindh police.

It particularly referred to the ‘criminal role’ of former Sindh IGP Ghulam Hyder Jamali in various illegal practices which cost the exchequer more than Rs2 billion apart from illegal appointments in different sections of the law enforcement agency. “It has been alleged in the instant case that illegal appointments have been made in the Sindh police,” said the NAB report submitted recently to the apex court.

“In this regard information collected from the Sindh police reveals that in pursuance of the orders of the Supreme Court an inquiry committee was formed which found that 383 and 437 officials were illegally appointed during 2013 and 2014, respectively, in the Sindh Reserve Police, Hyderabad.”

The NAB report, which heavily relied on the facts of the Sindh police inquiry committee’s report, also gave details about misappropriation of funds under different heads, including purchase of uniforms, maintenances of buildings and vehicles and payment of investigation fee to officers.

“The committee has completed its job. After the dismissal of illegal appointees, the process of rehiring will be initiated by the Sindh police to recruit personnel purely on the basis of merit. It has been decided that another fair chance will be given to the dismissed policemen so they can prove their merit, which they did not in the past.”

Published in Dawn, April 24th, 2016