Govt likely to extend charge of acting IG

The Punjab government is likely to extend the acting charge of Elite Force Additional IG Kunwar Muhammad Shahrukh as Inspector General Punjab, opting for the same stop-game arrangement that it is using for the Chief Secretary Office which too is being handled by the officer on additional charge since September this year.

Punjab Inspector General (IG) Faisal Shahkar was granted 14-day ex-Pakistan leave with effect from November 10 to 23 to perform Umrah.

This leave was to allow the Punjab government to run its affairs sans the incumbent IG, who had found himself in the middle of a row over the Wazirabad FIR issue.

Faisal Shahkar himself on November 6 requested for his services to be withdrawn from the Punjab government with “immediate effect” as the deadlock over FIR brought a volley of criticism of PTI leaders on him, tainting his otherwise reportedly unblemished service record.

The Punjab government claims that the federal government bent on trying to oversee the province’s affairs through the federal government officers, despite having limited power after the 18th Amendment, withheld the IG’s request of transfer and subsequently withheld the request of the Punjab Government to appoint a new IG Punjab from a panel of three officers.

The same was the case with the Punjab chief secretary, who too requested to be withdrawn from Punjab, and after his requests were repeatedly ignored he proceeded to go on leave in September, to allow the Punjab government to bring an officer of its choice. Since then the acting charge for the office has been extended four times similarly the leave of the incumbent CS was extended four times.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 23^rd, 2022.