ISLAMABAD: A three-member bench of the Supreme Court Friday suspended the order to transfer former Lahore Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Ghulam Mehmood Dogar and reinstated him as the Lahore CCPO.
The bench led by Justice Ijazul Ahsan passed the order after hearing Dogar’s case. The incumbent caretaker Punjab chief minister appointed Bilal Siddique Kamyana as the Lahore CCPO while transferring Dogar. Senior police officer Kamyana is praised by the PML-N but dreaded by the PTI for crushing its long march to Islamabad in May last year.
Referring to the order for Dogar’s transfer, the top court said that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had given verbal approval to a verbal request. “The power to order transfers belongs to the election commission, not the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC),” the bench said, adding that the ECP did not delegate its powers in writing to the CEC. “Who called the CEC and requested the transfer?”, a member of the bench Justice Muneeb Akhtar questioned during the proceedings.
He further observed saying the individual should have been told to be patient as the ECP will make the decision on the application.
Expressing dismay over the situation, Justice Muneeb further questioned how the CEC himself was making decisions on behalf of the entire electoral body. However, the apex court rejected the ECP’s request for more time to submit records on transfer postings. It is pertinent to mention here that the federal government had suspended Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Lahore Ghulam Mahmood Dogar, a day after Governor House came under attack.
“The clock is ticking, tick, tick, tick,” Justice Muneeb remarked. “Ninety days are about to expire and the election commission is asking for more time,” he added, referring to the dissolution of the Punjab Assembly as the Constitution stipulates holding elections within 90 days after a dissolution of an assembly. During the hearing, Justice Ijaz-ul-Ahsan noted that it is the commission’s job to conduct transparent elections and “they are even asking for more time for that”.
Meanwhile, the Islamabad High Court Bar Association’s (IHCBA) request to issue an order on the petition for elections in Punjab was also rejected. “Before us is only the transfer case of the Lahore CCPO,” Justice Ahsan said, adding that the issue of the delay in elections in Punjab has already been referred to the Chief Justice of Pakistan.
