LAHORE: The Punjab government surrendered services of seven deputy inspector generals of police (DIGs) and two senior superintendents of police (SSPs).

In a late night development, the officers were sent out of the Punjab for serving most of the time in the province during the tenure of the PM-N government.

Earlier in the day, Inspector General of Punjab Police Inam Ghani reshuffled 24 police officers of BPS-18 and BPS-19, including the SSP investigation of Lahore and the district police officer (DPO) of Kasur.

There were reports that some of the officials were surrendered under the rotation policy while a few others for having close links with the ‘the PML-N’.

Three of them were those who had actively participated in the meeting of 50 police officers against the appointment of Lahore Capital City Police Officer Umar Sheikh and in solidarity with the then Inspector General of Police Shaoib Dastgir.

Lahore SP investigation, Kasur DPO among 24 officers transferred

According to the notification, Special Protection Unit DIG Bilal Siddique Kamyana, Gujranwala City Police Officer Rai Babar Saeed and Elite Police Punjab DIG Akthar Abbas were also among them whose services were surrendered to the Establishment Division, Islamabad.

Similarly, Punjab DIG Welfare Shaukat Abbas, Punjab Highway Patrol DIG Humayun Bashir Tarrar, and deputy commandant of Punjab constabulary Inksar Khan Afghan have also been “expelled” from Punjab.

Three police officers serving in BS-19 whose services were surrendered to the Centre included Zeshan Asghar who was transferred on Monday from the post of SSP Investigation Lahore, assistant inspector general discipline at central police office Capt (retired) Liaqat Ali Malik and DIG telecommunication and transport Akbar Nasir Khan.

An official privy to the development said that of the three BS-19 police officers, Akbar Nasir was notified as DIG in Jan 2019 but his name was mentioned in the list of BS-19 officers either mistakenly or deliberately because the bureaucracy was annoyed with him on some issues when he was serving in the Punjab Safe City Authority.

He said Mr Akbar had strongly opposed the ‘plan’ of the bureaucracy when it tried to take over control of the authority by forwarding a summary to the chief minister ‘secretly’.

The official said that the officers surrendered to the federal government were not informed about the reasons of their “out of the province transfers’ as the respective notifications issued by the Establishment Division were ‘silent’ in this regard.

Around two weeks back, the Punjab government had surrendered two former capital city police officers (CCPOs) including Zufiqar Hameed and BA Nasir, to the Establishment Division.

RESHUFFLE: The reshuffle of 24 police officers was the first province-wide massive transfer/posting Mr Ghani ordered in these two ranks since he assumed charge as the IGP last month.

The transfers and postings of police officers in the provincial capital were made on the recommendations of Lahore Capital City Police Officer Umar Sheikh.

According to a notification issued on Monday, Lahore SSP investigation Zeshan Asghar was transferred and directed to report to the Central Police Office (CPO) for further directions. He has been replaced by Assistant Inspector General operations South Punjab Abdul Ghaffar Qaisrani.

Kasur DPO Zahid Nawaz Marawat was also transferred and directed to report to the CPO till further orders. SSP Headquarters Punjab Constabulary Farooq Abad Sahibzada Bilal Umar was transferred and posted as SSP Operations CTD Punjab Lahore against an existing vacancy.

Multan Chief Traffic Officer Huma Naseeb was transferred and posted as additional SP headquarters Multan vice Zunera Azhar who was transferred and posted as SP security Rawalpindi against an existing vacancy.

Multan region special branch SP Mohammad Zafar Buzdar has been transferred and posted as Multan chief traffic officer, Bahawalpur investigation SP Mohammad Saleem Khan Niazi has been transferred and posted as Multan PC Battalion Commander (3) against an existing vacancy, Lahore’s Allama Iqbal Town additional SP investigation Naveed Irshad has been transferred and posted as Sheikhupura SP investigation against an existing vacancy, Rawalpindi region special branch SP Khurram Shahzad Haider has been transferred and posted as Lahore special branch SSP intelligence against an existing vacancy, awaiting posting Mohammad Imran has been transferred and posted as Sialkot SP investigation against an existing vacancy, Sheikhupura SP investigation Mohammad Akmal has been transferred and posted as Elite Police Force deputy director monitoring vice Mohammad Ahsraf Awan who has been transferred and posted as SP investigation II Punjab Lahore against an existing vacancy, DG Khan SP investigation Faraz Ahmed has been transferred and posted as Lahore city additional SP operations vice Tasawar Iqbal Abbas who has been transferred and posted as Gujranwala Saddar division additional SP vice Hafeezur Rehman Bughti who has been transferred and posted as Lahore Saddar additional SP operations vice Ghazanfar Ali Shah who has been transferred and posted as south Punjab AIG operations, Gujranwala city division additional SP Imran Razaq has been transferred and posted as Gujrat SP investigation vice Ghulam Mustafa Gilani who has been transferred and posted as Hafizabad SP investigation against an existing vacancy, Punjab additional SP telecommunication Muhammad Bilal Qayyum has been transferred and posted Lahore’s Model Town additional SP investigation vice Syed Asad Muzaffar who has been transferred and posted as Punajb AIG monitoring and crime analysis investigation branch against an existing vacancy; and Gujranwala SSP operations Dr Fahad Ahmad has been transferred and posted as battalion commander (5) PC Lahore against an existing vacancy and Punjab investigation branch SP investigation-I Abdul Wahab has been transferred and posted as Allama Iqbal Town additional SP investigation.

Published in Dawn, October 6th, 2020