Cancellation of transfer order: Senior jail officer removed for 'mounting pressure' on IG

LAHORE: Punjab Inspector General for Prisons Mirza Shahid Saleem Baig has removed from service a "tainted" senior jail officer for time and again mounting pressure on him from different channels for cancellation of latter's transfer order to another jail.

A senior officer familiar with the development told Business Recorder that the IG in September 2020 had issued transfer order of Sheikhupura District Jail Assistant Superintendent Jail (ASJ) Waris Ali, who was attached with Sheikhupura Central Jail, to Hafizabad District Jail with the direction to join his duty with immediate effect.

According to an order issued by the IG office on August 01, a copy of which is available with Business Recorder, the ASJ was prima facie found guilty of inefficient and misconduct as he was transferred from district jail Sheikhupura to district jail Hafizabad vide office order No 754 dated 15-09-2020 with the direction to join the new assignment with immediate effect.

However, the order says, the officer "pressurized" the authority for cancellation of his transfer order which was subsequently put on hold for a period of one month. "On the completion one month, he (Waris) again pressurized the authority and the order was again held in abeyance for the period of three months.

Now the officer has again pressurized the authority to keep himself attached with the Sheikhupura district jail, and his act was tantamount to insubordination as well as disobedience which was unbecoming of for a uniform force," the order reads.

About the service record of the officer, the order highlighted that ASJ Waris was awarded three minor punishments in the past as well. In the first case, the authority had awarded him "censure" when three mobile phones along with a charger were recovered from some confirmed condemned prisoners during a surprise visit of DIG Lahore Region at the Sheikhupura district jail in 2016.

Similarly in 2017, the IG office withheld annual increment of Waris on the charges of negligence in performance of his duties during posting at Sheikhupura district jail. In the same year, the Punjab Home Department, the administrative body of the Punjab Prisons, also awarded him censure over the transfer issue.

As per the order, the IG prisons had offered a personal hearing chance to the officer in question but he failed to justify his "unbecoming" conduct.

"I am unconvinced by the arguments put forth by the officer as he had unlawfully pressurized to get his willful desires completed contrary to the lawful orders of the competent authority which is intolerable being member of a uniform disciplined force," the IG writes in the order.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021