CJP Nisar takes suo moto notice of Maneka-DPO Pakpattan issue

ISLAMABAD: The Chief Justice of Pakistan on Thursday took suo motu notice of the controversy-ridden transfer of Pakpattan District Police Officer following an alleged altercation with the former husband of Prime Minister Imran Khan’s wife.

A three-member bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Saqib Nisar will hear the suo motu case on Friday, August 31.

The court has summoned Pakpattan DPO Rizwan Umar Gondal, Inspector General Punjab Police, and the Regional Police Officer in personal capacity. 

Media reports of DPO Rizwan Umar Gondal’s transfer sparked a controversy earlier this week on Monday, as speculation suggested that the police officer was transferred because of the August 23 altercation between the police and Khawar Maneka, ex-husband of Bushra Bibi.

According to reports, police personnel under Gondal’s watch tried to stop Maneka at a checkpoint for speeding but he did not stop. The police then chased his vehicle and managed to intercept him.

IG Punjab, soon after the reports, denied that Gondal was transferred under any pressure and said it was done due to his giving misleading statements about misbehaviour by police personnel with a citizen.

Maneka then reportedly called DPO Gondal and asked him to suspend the officers who had stopped his car. However, Gondal refused to initiate an inquiry, saying that his personnel had done nothing wrong.

Later, Gondal and the Regional Police Officer were reportedly summoned by Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar at his 7-Club Road office and told to go to Maneka’s Dera (village outhouse) and apologise to him. The senior police officer refused to do so, said the sources.

Gondal, who is known to be an honest and upright officer, was then ‘transferred’ by the Punjab Inspector General of Police Syed Kaleem Imam.

After news of the senior police officer’s ‘transfer’ went viral on social media and drew the people’s ire, Punjab IG Kaleem Imam in a statement denied that DPO Gondal was removed from his post due to pressure from ‘certain quarters’.

“Gondal was removed for misreporting an incident in which police officials misbehaved with a citizen,” the IG said in his statement.