LAHORE, Sept 18: The Punjab government on Tuesday relieved nine senior police officers, including two DPOs, for posting in Balochistan in the light of new rotation-cum-promotion policy of the Establishment Division.

The relieved officers however criticized the PML-N-led government for relieving PSP officers and sparing those who have never left Punjab during their service tenure.

According to them, some police officers, who were supposed to be relieved by the provincial government under the previous transfer notifications issued by the ED, are still in Punjab.

Under a notification issued by the Punjab Services and General Administration, SSPs Fiaz Ahmad Sunbal (Balochistan), Captain (retired) Syed Ahmad Mobeen (Balochistan), Muhammad Azhar Akram (Balochistan) and SPs Shahzada Sultan (Punjab), Ahmad Nawaz Cheema (Sindh), Syed Ashfaq Anwer (KPK), Asghar Ali Mehmund (KPK), Muhammad Anwer Khaitran (Balochistan), and Mukhtar Tikka (Punjab) have been relieved from Punjab for further posting in Balochistan.

According to the changed rotation policy issued in third week of August last, those PSP officers with Balochistan domicile serving outside their province for the last three years would have to return to their mother province. Those Balochistan-domiciled officers, who have never served in their province, will also have to return to their province.

Similarly, those officers who belong to Punjab, Sindh and KPK but failed to complete three years in Balochistan will be completing their tenure.

Every PSP officer (in BS-17 and 18) will have to serve for three years in Balochistan. Officers in BS-19 and 20 who have not served in Balochistan will also be required to complete a three-year service term in Balochistan. Under the revised promotion policy, BS-19 officers, who have not served in Balochistan while in BS-17 to 19, shall have to serve in Balochistan for at least two years before or after their promotion. The officers in BS-19 who have already completed the three-year term will not be required to serve in Balochistan.

One of the officers transferred to Balochistan, who wished not to be named, told Dawn that many senior officers belonging to Punjab who never served outside their province for a single day had been excluded from the current list.

He said such officers, a majority of whom were considered blue-eyed of the provincial government, had been working for more than a decade and usually used strong references to remain in the province.

Another relieved officer said Punjab should also have spared those officers who had long posting in the province and those who were earlier supposed to be relieved in the light of the previous notification.

A Punjab domiciled officer who is not included in the latest list is of the view that each and every officer in Punjab will be sent to Balochistan under the policy and the federal government initially picked Balochistan-domiciled officers for posting there.

Meanwhile, IGP Mohammad Habibur Rehman gave a farewell to three relieved police officers and awarded them shields during a ceremony at the Central Police Office.

According to a handout, he said Punjab police always gave priority to unity and national interest and the people of Balochistan province were as respectable as the people of Punjab province.

He hoped police officers relieved from Punjab for their new assignments in Balochistan would leave no stone unturned to maintain peace and serve the people of Balochistan with honesty and dedication like they did in Punjab.

The provincial police chief said that the police officers, who were an asset of the department, were being relieved from the province on the directions of the government and on the orders of the Supreme Court of Pakistan and their services would always be remembered.