LAHORE: Some 35 senior police officers are going to retire within a year and the list includes names of Panama fame Mr Wajid Zia, presently serving as director general of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Wajid Zia, besides two former heads of Punjab Police – Mr Arif Nawaz and Mr Kaleem Imam, presently posted as Pakistan Railways police IG and National Highways and Motorway Police (NH&MP) IG, respectively.

FIA Additional Director Malik Abubakr Khuda Bakhsh, who is supervising the probe into the mega sugar scam haunting the PTI government, is also among the officers going to retire in January next year.

The federal government issued a notification mentioning these 35 officers from the Police Service of Pakistan (PSP) a couple of days back. Of them, four are serving in BS-22, 12 in BS-21, three in BS-20, five in BS-19 and 11 in BS-18.

According to the notification, eight of the retiring officers are presently serving in Punjab and as many in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, five in Sindh, while three officers are serving in Balochistan.

The notification issued by the establishment division, Islamabad, says 14 of these officers will retire this year, while the remaining in 2022.

Of the BS-22 PSP officers, National Police Academy Commandant retired Capt Ahmad Latif will retire on Aug 12, 2021, while IG PR police Arif Nawaz will retire on Aug 21, 2021.

Similarly, FIA DG Wajid Zia will retire on March 27, 2022. As per the notification, a majority of the 35 police officers are in BS-21.

A police officer commented that retirement of so many senior officers, including Kaleem Imam, who has been IG four times and Arif Nawaz, three times, would leave a huge gap in the police.

As per the notification of the BS-21 police officers, South Punjab police chief retired Capt Zafar Iqbal will retire in March 2022, Syed Imtiaz Altaf serving in KP in May 2022, retired Capt Abbas Hussain, serving in NH&MP and Dr Jamil Ahmad in Sindh, in August this year, Dr Waliullah from Sindh police in October this year, Mohammad Shahid Hanif from Punjab in May 2022, Dr Sultan Azam Temuri, serving as deputy police commissioner in the United Nations Peacekeeping Mission Darfur (UNAMID), in January 2022, Dr Tariq Nawaz Malik, assistant director, Fugitive Investigative Support at the INTERPOL secretariat in France in July 2021, Sajjad Afzal Afridi serving in NH&MP in Jan 2022, while Mohammad Arif Hanif serving in Sindh police will retire in March 2022.

As per notification of BS-20 police officers, Ahmed Yar Chohan, serving in Sindh police, will retire in March 2022, Sajid Ali, KP police, in Jan 2022, while former Lahore capital city police officer Mohammad Umar, who is presently serving as official on special duty (OSD) at the Establishment Division will retire in May 2022.

Of the BS-19 police officers, Sargodha District Police Officer (DPO) Zulfiqar Ahmad will retire in May 2022, Mohammad Yamin and Abdul Rashid from KP in April 2022, Khalid Rashid from Islamabad Capital Territory in Oct this year and Rana Shujat Ali from Punjab Police will retire in March 2022.

Similarly, of BS-18 Officers, Malik Mohammad Tariq from KP will retire in Nov this year, Altaf Hussain Leghari from Sindh police in Dec this year, Mohammad Jafar from Balochistan police in May 2022, Mohammad Anwar Khan from Punjab Police in July this year, Ifitkhar Ahmad from KP in May 2022, Zahid Afzal from Balochistan in Nov this year, Mohammad Ashfaq Khan from Punjab in Aug this year, Saif ul Murtaza from Punjab in June 2022, Ihsan Ullah from KP police in Jan 2022, Sardar Bahadur from KP police in May 2022, while woman police officer Khalida Parveen, serving in Punjab Police will retire in Dec this year.

Published in Dawn, May 28th, 2021