LAHORE: The Punjab police chief transferred on Tuesday the Jhelum district police officer (DPO), initially made him officer on special duty (OSD) and later replaced him with a Lahore additional superintendent of police.

The Jhelum DPO was the fourth field officer shown the door by Inspector General Mushtaq Ahmad Sokhera who assumed the charge of his office in third week of June this year.

Earlier, DPOs of Mandi Bahauddin, Chiniot and Bahawalnagar were removed from their offices.

According to a notification, Jhelum DPO Afzal Mahmood Butt was transferred and posted Gujranwala Special Branch SSP. Lahore Cantonment SP (Operations) Sarfraz Ahmad Khan Virk was transferred and posted in Butt’s place. Mr Virk has served in Lahore police on different posts.

A source at the Central Police Office Punjab told Dawn Mr Butt, first transferred and made OSD in the morning and later posted in the Special Branch in the evening, had put up his transfer request to the police authorities for personal reasons a few days ago.

Another source at the Chief Minister’s Secretariat claimed Mr Butt had been “removed” from the post in the backdrop of the provincial government’s reservations that the district police did not ‘stop’ Pakistan Awami Tehreek activists who converged at Islamabad to welcome their chairman on June 23.

The source claimed other DPOs along the National Highway were likely to be removed in days to come.

The chief minister interviewed four SPs for the Jhelum DPO post a day before Eidul Fitr.

Also, Rawalpindi VVIP Security SP Maria Mahmood was transferred and posted Rawalpindi SP Crimes Investigation Agency police, but she will continue working with the Sihala Police Training College Commandant.

Multan Legal DSP Shahzad Hameed was transferred and posted Multan region DSP Legal vice DSP Muhammad Arif who was transferred and posted Khanewal DSP legal against a vacant post.

Published in Dawn, August 6th, 2014