CM Buzdar denies he was responsible for Pakpattan DPO's transfer

CM Punjab assures SC that there will be no interference in police affairs

ISLAMABAD: Chief Minister Punjab Usman Buzdar rejected an inquiry report on Saturday and told the Supreme Court that it treated “presumptions as facts” and merely “rubberstamps the DPO (Pakpattan’s) statement.

Dismissing the inquiry report, Buzdar stated that it “treats the statement of Rizwan Gondal/DPO as gospel, (while) rubbish(ing) all other statements without justifiable reasons”.

There was hardly any need for the inquiry, if it was being conducted to support the DPO concerned, discarding everything else.



Chief Minister Punjab Usman Buzdar rejected an inquiry report on Saturday and told the Supreme Court that it treated “presumptions as facts” and merely “rubberstamps the DPO (Pakpattan’s) statement.

Dismissing the inquiry report, Buzdar stated that it “treats the statement of Rizwan Gondal/DPO as gospel, (while) rubbish(ing) all other statements without justifiable reasons”.

There was hardly any need for the inquiry, if it was being conducted to support the DPO concerned, discarding everything else.

Gujjar stated that NACTA’s report “overstretched the statement made by the respondent, to bring it within the province of misconduct”.

Gujjar stated that he was an ordinary citizen who held no government or public office and “cannot be (held) liable for misconduct”.

Gujjar is a close friend of Khawar Maneka, the first lady’s former husband.

Meanwhile, the CM’s reply stated that IG Kaleem Imam had transferred the DPO on his own because he was embarrassed by the fact that he was not properly informed about the state of affairs in district Pakpattan.

Defending IG Imam’s action, the reply stated that (NACTA’s) inquiry report did not give any weight to the explanation given by IG Imam about the transfer of former DPO Gondal.

Terming the hype attributed to telephone calls made from the chief minister’s office unwarranted, the CM stated that calls had also been made by the CSO to the CM and also to DPO Rizwan Gondal.

The CSO to the CM, the CM pointed out, was a police officer two batches junior to DPO Gondal who had called to check why the DPO was near the headquarters “out of sheer concern for his police officer”.

According to the CM’s reply, conclusions drawn by NACTA’s inquiry report seemed superfluous and exaggerated.

It also submitted that a commission led by the former IGP had been constituted for police reforms for excluding the possibility of such interference in police affairs.

A previous report by former Punjab Inspector-General Kaleem Imam found no evidence of political interference in Gondal’s transfer. The Supreme Court had rejected Imam’s report and ordered the National Counter Terrorism Authority’s (NACTA) Coordinator Mehr Khaliq Lak to prepare a new report.