Chief election commissioner alone, without consultation of other members, cannot approve transfers: SC
Apex court suspends transfer order of Ghulam Mahmood Dogar as Lahore CCPO
Court says it is unable to understand what is being done by ECP to hold elections in Punjab & KP as the 90-day time period is running out
ISLAMABAD ( Web News )
The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Friday suspended the transfer of Lahore Police Chief Ghulam Mahmood Dogar, observing that the chief election commissioner alone, without consultation of other members, cannot approve transfers.
The orders were issued by a three-member bench comprising Justice Ijazul Ahsan, Justice Munib Akhtar and Justice Sayyed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi.
As the hearing began on Friday, Justice Ahsan asked if the CEC was in court to which the ECP secretary said that Chief Election Commission Dr. Sikandar Sultan Raja couldn’t attend the proceedings as he was unwell.
Resuming his arguments, the Secretary Election Commission of Pakistan Umar Hamid Khan said that the Punjab government had sent the first verbal request for Dogar’s transfer on January 23, 2023.
Here, Justice Ahsan noted that as per the rules, the electoral body could grant permission for transfers in critical circumstances.
Meanwhile, Justice Naqvi asked: “Can the election commission allow transfer and posting under normal circumstances?”
At one point during the hearing, Justice Akhtar asked the ECP secretary and DG Law to explain how a transfer could be made on a verbal request. “Who has given the chief election commissioner the right to approve postings on verbal requests?
“If a Mr X calls and makes such a request, will the court allow it?” he asked. “Under what laws were assistant commissioners transferred at the request of a caretaker government?”
Justice Akhtar also observed that the ECP and not the CEC had the right to approve postings and transfers. “Is this a tradition [in the ECP] to approve transfers on verbal requests?”
Here, the ECP secretary said that such transfers had taken place in the electoral body earlier as well. “After a verbal request, a written request was also made.”
However, Justice Akhtar interjected that the written request in Dogar’s case was sent after the police officer was transferred.
At this, the ECP secretary explained that the written request was sent to ECP on Jan 24 and Dogar was transferred on Feb 6.
“Are decisions taken on verbal requests in normal circumstances too?” Justice Akhtar asked. “Can constitutional institutions issue verbal orders?”
Justice Ahsan also noted that a request came, it was approved and even implemented. “The correspondence was done after execution,” he said.
Justice Akhtar then asked if the ECP had devolved all its power to the CEC to which the ECP’s DG Law said that no such documents regarding this were present.
Subsequently, the court suspended Dogar’s transfer orders and sent the case to a five-member SC bench hearing a case, namely ‘Political Interference in Punjab Police Transfer and Posting’.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court remarked it is unable to understand what is being done by the Election Commission of Pakistan to hold elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhunkhwas as the 90-day time period is running out.
Justice Munib Akhtar said the sole responsibility of the ECP was to hold elections but it was seeking more time to perform its duty.
At one point, the Islamabad High Court Bar Association pleaded the top court to issue an order on its petition seeking intervention for the electoral schedule. However, Justice Ijazul Ahsan rejected the request, saying a two-member bench had already sent the matter to Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial. He added that it was the prerogative of the chief justice to form a bench to hear the case.
It is worth mentioning here that Ghulam Mahmood Dogar, a BS-21 officer, was initially recalled by the federal government in September 2022. The seemingly surprising move came after the Lahore police had booked two PML-N ministers, as well as two senior officials of state-run PTV, on terrorism charges for allegedly “fanning religious hatred” against former premier Imran Khan and “endangering his life”.
However, then-Punjab chief minister Chaudhry Parvez Elahi had stopped Dogar from relinquishing the charge, saying that the federal government can neither remove him nor transfer him.
Dogar was also famously filmed meeting then chief minister Parvez Elahi deferentially after defying the Centre’s orders to report to the federal government.
Following a back-and-forth, the federal government suspended him in early November for apparently not ensuring the security of the Governor House during a violent protest by PTI workers against the assassination attempt on Imran during his party’s long march.
He was then reinstated as the Lahore CCPO as per a Supreme Court directive issued on Dec 2, 2022.
Dogar had been appointed as the head of the joint investigation team (JIT) probing the Wazirabad attack on Imran. In early January, he had proposed departmental action against four senior members of the panel after they said there was no proof that there were multiple shooters, despite the PTI’s assertions.
He had also proposed action against two other senior police officers, including Gujrat District Police Officer Syed Ghazanfar Ali Shah and a Counter Terrorism Department senior superintendent of police — who was not part of the probe team — for allegedly recording a video statement of the prime suspect arrested from the attack spot and leaking it to the media.
Dogar’s allegations had followed a letter the four members had written to him, expressing reservations over the way he had been trying to influence the investigation process.
Then on Jan 23, the newly installed caretaker Punjab government replaced Dogar with Bilal Siddique Kamyana as the new CCPO.