Punjab Police transfers, postings: SC to hear plea against political interference today.

LAHORE -- A three-member bench of the Supreme Court is set to hear the matter of chronic political interference in the transfers and postings of the Punjab police on Wednesday (today).

Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial is heading the bench while other members are Justice Ayesha Malik and Justice Athar Minallah.

From the Punjab police department, DIG Legal Kamran Adil is likely to appear before the SC to present the police case following the court notice.

Frequent political interference, especially during the last few months, has pushed the largest police force of country to a blind alley, destroying the career of several police officers. A resident of Faisalabad, Rana Tahir Saleem, had taken up the matter through a petition he filed through his counsel, seeking appropriate orders to stop illegal political interference in the police matters. He also raised the issue of blatant violation of the Police Order 2002 regarding security of tenure and in transfer-postings of the policemen from SHO to IGP.

The petitioner also presented in the SC record of the average posting tenure in Punjab. He said he was in pain to point out that the autonomy of the police was being subverted by the political rulers through de facto use of illegal powers of police administration (ranging from the DPO to the IG police) in matters relating to the appointments/transfers.

'This has led to the serious deterioration of chain of command, resulting in politicisation of the police force which is the root cause of biased police investigations and...