Former CCPO Dogar retires after months of wrangling

Police official’s career fluctuated with political changes in Punjab

LAHORE:

Former CCPO Ghulam Mehmood Dogar retired after reaching the age of superannuation on April 23.

He had filed a petition before the service tribunal for ‘correction of his age’, which was turned down. The official had claimed that he was two years younger than his age in the official record.

However, the tribunal declare that it did not make sense for him to take so many years to file the appeal. He did his matriculation to masters and joined the civil services but did not contest the age. He also did not raise the issue during his initial over two decades of service.

Another question raised by the tribunal was that normal age of matriculation was 15 years, but if Dogar’s claim was accepted, his age at the time would have been 13 and a half years.

While serving as the CCPO of Lahore, Dogar had faced allegations of being close to the PTI government.

The federal government led by the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) had issued orders of his transfer after cases of blasphemy were registered against two federal ministers in Lahore.

However, the then chief minister Pervaiz Elahi had asked him to continue serving as CCPO and he clung to the post despite issuance of letters warning of disciplinary action against him if he did not comply with the federal government orders.

After Dogar was suspended, he challenged the order in the Lahore High Court, Supreme Court and the Federal Service Tribunal.

As Mohsin Naqvi took charge as caretaker Chief Minister of Punjab, he appointed Bilal Siddiqui Kamyana as the CCPO.

The Supreme Court later reinstated Dogar, but before taking charge, he withdrew his plea.

Earlier, when Hamza Shehbaz was elected chief minister, he had removed Dogar from the post, but as Pervaiz Elahi replaced him, he reinstated the CCPO.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 25^th, 2023.