Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. — File photo/Online

QUETTA: Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on Monday directed the authorities to post the newly-appointed police officers in Balochistan’s restive regions, DawnNews reported.

The chief justice issued the directive during the hearing of a petition on the law and order situation and human rights violation in Balochistan at the Supreme Court’s Quetta registry.

A three-judge bench of the apex court, comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Khilji Arif Hussain and Justice Jawwad S. Khawaja, was hearing the petition filed by the Balochistan Bar Association on the law and order situation in Pakistan’s largest province.

During the hearing, the chief justice remarked that targeted killings had severely increased in Balochistan, adding that, unknown persons come, kill people and then leave.

He asked Inspector General Balochistan Police, Tariq Omar Khitab, as to why had the 30 police and District Management Group (DMG) officers, who had arrived in Balchistan on the court’s orders,  not been posted yet and what the police was doing about the situation.

The IG informed the court that a summary in this regard had been submitted to Chief Secretary Balochistan Babar Yaqoob Fateh Muhammad.

Chief Justice Iftikhar said the law and order situation in the province’s Pashtun-dominated areas was better and gave instructions for the newly-appointed police officers to be posted in Balochistan’s restive areas.

Justice Iftikhar expressed his astonishment over the fact that several of the officers belonging to Balochistan had never served in the province even for a day.

Moreover, Balochistan Assembly Speaker Mohammad Aslam Bhootani in his statement before the bench, showered praise on the chief secretary and IG Balochistan police. Bhootani was of the view that both the chief secretary and the IG were powerless as neither could they act against the political government nor could they refuse the court’s orders.

The bench also referred to the law and order situation in Karachi and the Supreme Court’s proceedings on it.

The chief justice said that police in Karachi had cooperated with the Supreme Court and made arrests complying with the court’s directives.

Chief Justice Iftikhar added that the police in Balochistan had failed to its control the law and order situation.

He remarked that if all the money allocated to Balochistan would have been properly invested on the province, the current deterioration in the province’s law and order would not have taken place.

He further said that the provincial government had no writ in Dera Bugti, adding that, the region was under the control of the Frontier Corps.

The chief justice said that even if 80 per cent of those displaced from Dera Bugti could return to their homes, it would be an accomplishment.