New cops on the block: Confusion prevails as govt shuffles top officers

CID and traffic need new chiefs while Mirza and Durrani await notifications about their fate.

KARACHI: Although the new IGP Sindh, Mushtaq Shah, has taken up office and Additional IG Saud Mirza has stepped aside, it remains unclear as to who will take up the mantle as chiefs of the traffic and CID departments.

Mirza is expected to be replaced by Additional Crime Investigation Department (CID) IG Ghulam Shabbir Sheikh. By late Saturday evening, however, no one at the police department had any idea who will now become the next Additional IG Traffic, the post vacated by Mushtaq Shah. The department’s bewilderment speaks volumes for the almost whimsical and rushed manner in which the province’s top officers were changed by the government.

For the longest time, the Additional IG post at the CID was vacant. Shabbir was given the post four months ago after he was reassigned from Balochistan as Frontier Constabulary commandant. If Sheikh is posted as Additional IG, the glaring question that arises would be as to who would replace him as head of the all-important CID.

Officials at the Central Police Office claim that while Mushtaq Shah took charge on Saturday, they are in the dark about the appointment of a new Additional IG Karachi in place of Saud Mirza. They have yet to receive a notification or order about the appointment.

Meanwhile, Mirza was also ordered to report to the establishment division in Islamabad. He told The Express Tribune that he has relinquished charge and is waiting for the federal government’s decision about his new post. “I have no idea where I will be transferred to,” said the perpetually forlorn looking policeman. “It will be wherever the federal government deems best.”

By law, the most experienced field officer is automatically next in line for the position of additional IG, unless the government appoints someone else. That means District South Deputy Inspector General Commandant Shaukat Ali Shah is most likely to be named acting additional IG, Karachi. However, no such written order has been issued as yet.

It is rumoured that Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani has approved Wajid Ali Durrani to take over as Inspector General of the National Highway and Motorway police in place of Zafarullah Khan who is due to retire on November 5.

Like Mirza, Durrani too is to report to Islamabad only after which, he would take over from Zafarullah Khan after his retirement.

On the other hand, Additional IG Punjab Aftab Sultan was reportedly appointed as the Intelligence Bureau’s Director General as Javed Noor’s replacement. Initially, it was thought that Durrani would take up this post.

The officer’s name was said to have been on the nomination list along with that of Aftab Sultan and two more Police Service of Pakistan officers, IG Punjab Javed Iqbal and IG Balochistan Rao Amin.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 24^th, 2011.