KARACHI: The Sindh High Court has dismissed a petition filed against a mobile application system introduced by the Sindh police department to mark attendance of its employees.

Citing the secretary of home department, provincial police officer and others as respondents, a policeman petitioned the SHC and asserted that under the impugned attendance system, he was being forced to use his personnel mobile phone and internet data service to mark his presence on duty.

After a preliminary hearing, a two-judge bench comprising Justice Adnan Iqbal Chaudhry and Justice Jawad Akbar Sarwana noted that the petitioner was a police constable and he had raised objection against the orders of the police department asking police constables to mark their attendance through a mobile application referred to as “Point Me App”.

The petitioner also submitted that such orders did not consider that some police constables may not possess a smart phone which was required for using the app and as a consequence of his objection, he was given a show-cause notice on Aug 8.

The bench in its order said that as per the show-cause notice available on record, the charge against the petitioner was that he had not marked attendance through the mobile app designated for such purpose.

“Though the petitioner has submitted his reply, the department has yet to consider the same. Therefore, where the show-cause notice has yet to be decided, the petition is premature. With that observation, the petition is dismissed”, it concluded.

It is asserted in the petition that the petitioner was being forced to use his mobile phone to mark attendance and had to install internet packages on his cellphone for such purpose.

The petitioner also contended that such orders were not only putting financial burden on him, but thousands of low-ranked employees of police were also suffering from such orders and in case of non-compliance, they were facing show-cause notices, departmental inquiries, blockage of salaries, fines and other punishments.

He argued that the impugned orders were issued in violation of Articles 23 and 24 of the Constitution.

Published in Dawn, September 2nd, 2024