Police department: Operations DIG and SSP transferred

Three other senior police officials transferred.

LAHORE:

Punjab Police IG Khan Baig has transferred Muhammad Tahir Rai from the post of Lahore DIG for operations and posted him as the DIG for finance and welfare. The IG also transferred four other senior police officials on Monday.

Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had recently ordered an inquiry into allegations made by a woman named Zahida Aleem that the DIG was patronising a group which had illegally occupied her property in Sattukatla, a village near Wapda Town.

The inquiry by a three-member committee – consisting of Additional IG Muhammad Amlaish, Additional IG Abubakar Khuda Bux and Major (r) Mubasharullah – was recently completed and submitted to the chief minister.

Rai’s transfer after the completion of the inquiry led many in the Police Department to assume that he had been found guilty. However, the DIG denied this. “I request the government to make the report public,” he said. He added that he had ordered the police to get the woman’s house vacated because it legally did not belong to her.

Police sources said that the inquiry had largely found the allegations against the DIG to be baseless, but he had committed an irregularity in sending Ghalib Market SHO Muhammad Ali Butt to get the house vacated, when the property was in Sattukatla police jurisdiction. They said another possible reason for the transfer was that there had been a rise in the crime rate in Lahore.

Zahida Aleem had sent an application to the chief minister alleging that the police had kicked her out of the house on the orders of Tahir Rai and his brother Tariq Rai. They had also registered a fabricated case against her, she alleged.

Recently-appointed Lahore Operations SSP Captain (retired) Jawad Qamar has been sent back to the Central Police Office. Senior police officers had objected to his appointment because Qamar had been their junior. Qamar is an additional SP, not due for promotion to the rank of SSP for another four years. Rana Abdul Jabbar has been transferred from the post of Muzaffargarh DPO to Lahore operations SSP.

Also, the IG transferred Hassan Mushtaq Sukhera from headquarters additional SP in Lahore to Muzaffargarh DPO. Rana Shahid Pervaiz has been posted as principal of the Rawalpindi Police Training School, a post of SSP rank previously occupied by Sikander Hayat, who has now been posted as Rawalpindi operations SSP. Ghulam Rasool Zahid has been appointed Punjab crime DIG.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 22^nd, 2013.