SC says police personnel must be upright.

ISLAMABAD -- The SupAreme Court has held that police personnel should be upright and have an unimpeaAchable chaArAacter, as well as clean antecedents, since the job demands accountability at every step and places a tremendous responsibility on them.

The observation came in a judgement authored by JusAtice Muhammad Ali MazAhar on an appeal against a decision by the Punjab Services Tribunal which rejected a plea by an assistant sub-inspector of police on Sept 22, 2020.

The Supreme Court bench comprised Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Sajjad Ali Shah and Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar.

Faraz Naveed was appoAinted as assistant sub-inspeActor through the Punjab Public Service Commission.

He was charged with murdering Tufail Haider Naqvi at a police station in Gujrat in Nov 2014 after keeping him in illegal confinement.

He was indicted under Section 302 PPC and the Anti-Terrorist Act (ATA), read with Article 155-C of the Police Order, 2002.

On Nov 5, 2014, the petitioner along with other police officials Thereafter, the petitioner murdered him with a hatchet in a room within the premises of the police station.

An anti-terrorist court (ATC) awarded Faraz Naveed the death sentence under Section 302 PPC and Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorist Act. He was also sentenced to three years in jail under Article 16 (d) of the Police Order 2002. The ASI then took his appeal to the Punjab Services Tribunal (PST), but it found the petitioner guilty and recommended departmental action against him.

Faraz Naveed was later dismissed from service.

He challenged his conviction in the Lahore High Court, which acquitted the petitioner by giving him the benefit of doubt.

While he was in jail, he was served a show cause notice on Nov 8, 2014, and dismissed from service on Jan 10, 2015, after departmental inquiry.

But after he was acquitted, the petitioner filed a departmental appeal, but it was rejected. He then filed an appeal with the Punjab Service Tribunal, but it too dismissed the plea on Sept 22, 2020.

Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar of the Supreme Court observed in the judgement that despite acquittal, it was the prerogative of Faraz Naveed's employer, the Punjab Police, to reinstate or disregard his request for reinstatement.

It is for the department to examine equitably whether the petitioner has been completely exonerated or not and to satisfy itself that his reinduction would not become a threat to discipline in the police force.

A person...