Govt extends charge of acting IG

The provincial government on Thursday extended the acting charge of Elite Force Additional Inspector General (IG) Kunwar Muhammad Shahrukh as IG Punjab until December 2.

The government also granted a nine-day casual leave with effect from November 23 under the Revised Leave Rules, 1981, to Punjab IG Faisal Shahkar.

Additional IG Kunwar Muhammad Shahrukh has been assigned to look after the charge of the post in addition to his own duties during IG Shahkar's leave.

Earlier, IG Faisal Shahkar was granted 14-day ex-Pakistan leave 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Faisal Shahkar on November 6 had requested for his services to be withdrawn from the Punjab government with “immediate effect” as the deadlock over FIR brought a volley of criticism of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leaders on him,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, had withheld the IG’s request for transfer and subsequently, had withheld the request of the provincial 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The same was the case with the Punjab chief secretary, who too had requested to be withdrawn from Punjab, and after his requests were repeatedly ignored he had proceeded to go on leave in September, to allow the Punjab government to bring an officer of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 and similarly, the leave of the incumbent CS was extended four times.

By extending the acting charge of the Additional IG as IG Punjab, the Punjab government is opting for the same stop-gap arrangement that it has been using for the Chief Secretary Office.

In November, tensions between the Punjab government and the federal government grew over the issue of the suspension of the Lahore Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Ghulam Mehmood Dogar.

In October, with murmurs of the federal government considering appointing a chief secretary in Punjab soon and ending the deadlock on at least CS’s appointment front, the provincial government decided to extend the tenure of the incumbent Acting Chief Secretary Abdullah Khan Sumbal.

Planning and Development Board Chairman Abdullah Khan Sumbal was given additional charge of chief secretary Punjab for 14 days starting on September 17 and ending on September 30, after Kamran Ali Afzal, who had developed differences with the provincial government went on a 14-day leave.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 25^th, 2022.