According to media reports, ministry of interior has dismissed more than forty high ranking police officials. According to the spokesperson of the ministry, Siddiq Siddiqi, these officials were removed from their posts on the charges of corruption, showing lackluster performance and misuse of their authorities. These officers will immediately be out of their post and have been replaced by fresh officers.
According to the ministry, the decision has been taken after a thorough round of investigations which revealed that these officers were not eligible to hold their posts. The dismissed officers belonged to different sections of police force like cadre and personnel, logistics, border protection, purchasing and agreements and other varying sections. It has been stated that sufficient evidences were collected against these officers and their dismissal came after collecting all the evidences against them. The corruption of these officers resulted in the wastage of millions of dollars for unnecessary and bogus purchases. It has also been reported that these officers had also collected millions in bribes from different contracts.
This worth praising step is the first of its kind in the democratic history of our country because removing any high ranking official is very difficult due to a number of reasons, most prime is their affiliation with influential ministers or politicians of the country. There were regular reports about corruption and malpractices in the police force which resulted in the sharp decline of the reputation of this force in public. In such conditions, it was the call of time to take such a necessary step so that the black sheep should be pelted out of the force. People hope that it should not be the first and last step of its kind and more dismissals should come into effect after a thorough and necessary investigation.
It is also necessary that further trial of the said officers should be conducted so that the precious public money should be recovered from them and they should be made an example for rest of the public servants. It is a sad reality that, due to rampant and flagrant corruption in all the government offices, high ranking officials have no fear of accountability which makes them commit the crime more openly. Any strict punishment in this regard would help a lot to change this mindset.
It is also needed that there should be a permanent investigating body inside different public offices so that the conduct and performance of government officers should be kept in check and the perpetrators of corruption should be brought into justice.