Sindh High Court (SHC) on Tuesday sought details of the bill recently adopted by Sindh Assembly to restore Police Order 2002 and debate over it in the provincial assembly. A division bench of the SHC comprising Justice Hassan Azhar Rizvi and Justice Aziz ur Rehman ordered the provincial government to present the details of the bill as it resumed the hearing after one week in a contempt of court plea filed against the Sindh Government including Chief Secretary Sindh and two provincial ministers for not implementing the court orders regarding the new police rules.
Advocate General Sindh Salman Talabuddin told the court that the provincial assembly passed the bill to restore Police Order 2002 and prayed the court to petition against the provincial government should be rejected as the orders of the court have been implemented.
Executive Director of Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (PILER), Karamat Ali had filed the petition seeking the framing of police rules for promotion and posting in Sindh Police. Fasial Siddiqui, counsel of petitioner, however contended that the police bill is contravention to the orders of the court and also questioned whether the opposition in the assembly was taken on board as it boycotted the meetings of the select committee, which was tasked to look into the bill.
The court observed that it is an important social issue, which has trickle-down effects, for which the consensus of all stakeholders is mandatory. Justice Rizvi remarked that the points raised in the court order about police rules for postings and transfers should have been taken into consideration and inquired about the number of legislators, which took part in the debate on this said piece of legislation.
The Advocate General told the court that the government is not bound to inform about the proceedings of the assembly, at which the bench asked that at least, the court should be informed that to what extent the court orders were incorporated in the bill.
"The details of the bill should be presented in the court so it can review it," Justice Rizvi remarked. The court ordered Advocate General to produce the details of bill and the debate took place in the assembly before the court on next hearing of the case on June 13, 2019.
The counsel for petitioner told the court that the court would observe that its orders were violated completely in the new bill and said that IG Police would indulge in contempt of court if he acted upon the bill. In the contempt of the court petition, the petitioner stated that the SHC had ordered to make changes in laws and rules regulating the appointment and transfer period of officials in the police department.
The petitioner had requested for contempt proceedings as the government had failed to comply the orders. The petitioner said that former IG Sindh A D Khawja sent the police rules after framing them thrice, but the provincial government never acted upon these rules.
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