ISLAMABAD: The more than a year-long tussle between the Sindh government and civil society activists over the removal of Inspector General of Police AD Khawaja seemed all but over on Wednesday, after the PML-N-controlled federal cabinet stepped in to approve his replacement with the PPP-approved Sardar Abdul Majeed Dasti, a private news channel reported.
The appointment of a new IG for Sindh had been on the agenda of Wednesday’s meeting of the federal cabinet, with Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi in the chair.
A minister present in the meeting told the channel that the cabinet had approved the appointment of Dasti, a grade-22 police officer, as IG Sindh to replace incumbent IG Khawaja.
Khawaja’s differences with PPP bigwigs on issues relating to the removal/posting of police officials before by-elections in some constituencies; his stance on a businessman said to be a close associate of PPP leader Asif Zardari; and his concerns regarding recruitment in the police department were no secret.
Senior police officials who spoke to the channel on the condition of anonymity said the move seems to have been a power play aimed at ensuring that the PPP had “a trusted man” at the helm of the province’s police force with the general elections around the corner.
Some pointed to more personal vendettas.
“The PPP leadership wanted to show and prove to the IGP [AD Khawaja] that he could not confront them and survive,” claimed one officer. Another said that, “Certain business partners of Asif Ali Zardari had ego issues [with Khowaja’s continuation in office].”
One police officer said the Sindh government had been irked by Khawaja’s posting of officers on merit, and “For stopping the forced sale of sugarcane at cheap rates to sugar mills owned by bigwigs in the Sindh government.”
However, a spokesperson for Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah insisted that the government had only recommended Dasti “as he was senior and a grade-22 official.”
The Sindh government had certainly gone out of its way to replace IG Khawaja with a police chief of its own liking.
It had on two previous occasions tried and failed to remove IG Khawaja from his post: first in December 2016, when it sent him on forced leave; and then in April 2017, when it surrendered his services to the federal government and appointed Dasti, then also in grade-21, as the provincial police chief.
Various civil society organisations, however, had approached the Sindh High Court against the removal of Khawaja and on Sept 7 the court ruled that the IGP would complete his term, which could not “under any circumstances be reduced to less than three years” if the provincial government amended or altered the rules at any time. The provincial government and the PPP bigwigs were not happy with the court’s decision.
Sindh Services Secretary Mohammad Riazuddin, while briefing the cabinet on the PPP’s case against Khawaja last year, changed tack to insist that the IGP was a grade-22 post, but Khawaja was a grade-21 officer. Dasti had meanwhile been promoted to grade-22.
Recalling that Khawaja had been posted on March 12, 2016 on an own-pay-scale (OPS) basis, He said that the Supreme Court had returned all officers posted on an OPS basis to their original posts and, therefore, the posting of IG Khawaja was in violation of the apex court’s orders.
IG Khawaja, however, had argued that he had been posted as the Sindh police chief with the consent of the provincial government by the federal government. The apex court’s judgement on OPS officials had been known at that point, which showed that the Centre had been mindful of the fact and still chosen to appoint him.
He had also pointed out that since 2005, some 17 IGs had been posted in Sindh of which 14 were grade-21 officers. Only three officers were in grade-22, he had added.
Published in Daily Times, January 11th 2018.
