CS appointed after four months

Police Inspector General Shahkar finally allowed to relinquish charge

LAHORE:

As another political storm gathered over Punjab, the federal government that had been delaying the appointment of a permanent chief secretary of the province since September seemingly due to antagonism with the provincial government led by the coalition of the PTI and PML-Q has finally appointed acting Chief Secretary Abdullah Khan Sumbal as permanent head of the provincial bureaucracy.

Inspector General of Police Faisal Shahkar, who since November was not being allowed to leave his charge by the centre, was also finally ordered to relinquish his positionand Additional IG Investigation Ghullam Rasool Zahid was given the acting charge of the IGP.

According to a notification issued on Wednesday, Sumbal, a BS 21 PAS officer, was appointed as the Punjab Chief Secretary.

The issue of the chief secretary’s appointment cropped up in September when the then CS Kamran Ali Afzal requested to be repatriated to the centre from Punjab owing to his differences with the chief minister. Afzal, who had been posted by the PTI government itself, allegedly had made himself controversial during the PML-N’s rule in the province, when he had overseen the oath taking ceremony of Hamza Shehbaz as the chief minister, which had been organised at Governor House against the incumbent governor’s will.

It was during the PML-N’s government, with Afzal at the helm of affairs, that allegations surfaced that state machinery had been used to suppress PTI protesters, including women and children.

In view of his own request of being called back to the centre, the provincial government too forwarded three names to be considered for the slot of new chief secretary, which included Sumbal.

However, the federal government denied his request for repatriation and withheld the provincial government’s request of appointing a new CS.

Resultantly, the then CS Kamran Afzal went on leave, allowing the provincial government to appoint Abdullah Khan Sumbal as acting CS.

The provincial government kept extending the leave and also the acting charge till December 7 when finally Kamran Afzal took a 120-day ex-Pakistan leave.

Abdullah Khan Sumbal was given the additional charge for the duration of the leave by the federal government. Now, a few days into this new arrangement, the federal government has finally appointed Sumbal was a permanent CS.

The federal and provincial governments had also locked horns over the issue of appointing the IG of Punjab after Faisal Shahkar requested to be called back to the centre.

He too was allowed to relinquish his charge after about two months. Shahkar had on November 6 requested the central government to be withdrawn from Punjab with “immediate effect” as the issue of registering the FIR in the Wazirabad firing case brought a volley of criticism of PTI leaders on him.

Shahkar first went on ex-Pakistan leave from November 10 to 23 and his leave was later extended. On December 5, when the second extension of the leave expired, he came to the IG office, completed joining process, and left for Islamabad without attending to any office matters.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 22^nd, 2022.