Punjab Inspector General of Police (IGP) Inam Ghani has given his consent to a proposal floated by the Lahore CCPO for court-martialling the policemen, reported 24NewsHD TV channel on Wednesday.

The IGP agreed with the Lahore Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Umer Sheikh’s proposed amendments including introducing court-martial like accountability system in the police department. The IGP also ordered to finalise the draft in this regard.

The TV channel reported that the CCPO in a letter sent to the IGP on October 7 pointed out inadequacies in the existing mechanism for punishing disobedient police officials.

The CCPO proposed that the police department should introduce its own reward and punishment system because, under the existing punishment system, officers who commit misconduct rejoin the service in one way or another.

The CCPO proposed recommendations aimed at reviewing the disciplinary rules of the police department in order to ensure better service delivery to the public in the province.

Right now, civil servants can be held accountable under The Punjab Police (E & D) Rules, 1975. As per these 1975 Rules, deviant employees could approach the Service Tribunal after their appeal was rejected from the IGP. However, the CCPO Lahore objected to the rejoining of these officers, the TV channel reported.

It has been proposed that police discipline and criminal cases appeals should be catered to within the police department instead of referring it to the civil departments. 

“It is requested that the Government of Punjab may be moved for new legislation regarding dedicated Accountability Rules for Police Department, including the process of Court Martial as available in the Pakistan Army, so that the police officers’ accountability/discipline may be ensured in the interest of the general public,” reads the letter sent to the IGP.