Another major reshuffle jolts police department

Eight DPOs and 18 DIGs transferred across province

LAHORE: Unlike the promises made by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief and its manifesto, police operations, investigations, public dealing, service delivery, service structure and law etc remained the same except the change in command. The practice of transfer or suspension on political whims also remained persistent.

A few days after the replacement of Inspector General Punjab Police, the department went through another major reshuffling. At least eight District Police Officers (DPOs) and 18 Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIGs) was transferred and posted on Friday while the services of at least six police officers have been surrendered before the Establishment Division, Islamabad.

Transfers and postings at keys posts including CCPO Lahore, DIG Operations Lahore, RPO Sheikhupura, Bahawalpur, Rawalpindi and Faisalabad were also made.

Since the PTI formed the government in Punjab, at least five IGPs have been transferred in a period of less than one and a half years. Four IGPs that served before the incumbent Shoaib Dastagir included Captain (retd) Arif Nawaz Khan, Amjad Javed Saleemi, Muhammad Tahir and Dr Syed Kaleem Imam.

Police reforms: a far cry

After Arif Nawaz took charge as a provincial commander, the police department had gone through a massive reshuffle.

Dozens of transfers on keys posts including DPOs and RPOs were made in one go.

Such recurrent transfers by the PTI government have drawn severe criticism among police officers circles as they deem it in violation of Police Order (2002) and uncertainty ie detrimental in performance.

An officer said the Police Order sets three years as tenure at a posting. The officer needed some time to settle down before devising a strategy and policy as a commander. The implementation of policy also takes some time. However, the moment it was time to breed results, the changes were made.

In major transfer and postings, CCPO Lahore BA Nasir has been replaced by DIG Zulfiqar Hameed and DIG Operations Lahore Ashfaq Ahmad Khan by DIG Rai Babar Saed.

Additional IG Traffic Farooq Mazhar has been posted as RPO Sheikhupura, RPO Sheikhupura Sohail Tajik has been transferred and posted as RPO Rawalpindi,

Regional Police Officer Bahawalpur Imran Mahmood has been replaced by Fayyaz Ahmed Dev, Regional Police Officer. Faisalabad Region Ghulam Mehmood Dogar has been replaced by DIG Riffat Mukhtar and RPO Rawalpindi Ehsan Tufail has been replaced by Sohail Tajik.

At least eight DPOs have also been replaced. The districts included DPO Okara, Jhang, Bahawalnagar, Muzaffargarh, Bahawalpur, Rahim Yar Khan, Sargodha, Attock and Bahawalpur.

SSP Omar Saeed Malik who was awaiting appointment has been appointed as DPO Okara. AIG Admin and Security CPO Lahore Mohammad Hasan Raza Khan were transferred and posted as DPO Jhang. SP Investigation-I, Investigation Branch Punjab, Lahore, Kadus Baig has been posted as DPO Bahawalnagar. SSP Investigation Faisalabad, Syed Nadeem Abbas as DPO Muzaffargarh, SSPRO, CTD Lahore, Mohammad Shoaib Ashraf as DPO Bahawalpur and SP Telecommunication Punjab Lahore Muntazir Mehdi as DPO Rahim Yar Khan. SP Headquarters Traffic Punjab, Lahore, Amra Athar has been appointed as DPO Sargodha and AIG Development CPO Punjab Lahore Muhammad Hassan Iqbal as DPO Attock.

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DPO Okara Jahanzib Nazir has been posted as Battalion Commander 7, PC Lahore, DPO Jhang Attaur Rahman as SP Investigation I, Investigation Branch Punjab, Lahore and DPO Bahawalnagar Mohammad Anwar Khetran as AIG Admin and Security, CPO Punjab, Lahore. DPO Muzaffargarh Sadiq Ali as SSP Telecommunications Punjab, Lahore, DPO Bahawalpur Sarfraz Khan Virk as SSP RO CTD Lahore, DPO Rahim Yar Khan Amir Khan Taimur as SP Special Branch Multan Region.

SP Special Branch Multan Region Habibullah Khan was asked to report to Central Police Office Lahore, DPO Sargodha Hassan Mushtaq Sukhaira has been posted as PSO to IG Punjab while PSO to IG Punjab Muhammad Abdul Qadir Qamar has been posted as SSP Headquarters Traffic Punjab, Lahore. DPO Attock, Syed Shahzad Nadeem Bukhari has been appointed as AIG Development CPO Punjab, Lahore and SSP Muhammad Asim who had been awaiting appointment was appointed as SSP Investigation Faisalabad.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 30^th, 2019.