LAHORE: The Rotation Policy 2020 that was launched to strengthen the federation and reshuffle the least rotated federal services officers across the country, has suffered a major setback since the PMLN-led federal government took the charge.

The policy was adopted to transfer mostly “well-connected” officers of the Pakistan Administrative Service (PAS) and the Police Service of Pakistan (PSP), who had been serving in the same province or federating unit for years. Another objective was to overcome shortage of officers in different grades by equally distributing them among all provincial governments etc across the country. The Rotation Policy 2020 reads, “No PAS/PSP officer of BS 20 and below shall be allowed to serve in a government for more than 10 years”.

However, the incumbent federal government has blatantly violated the policy by transferring police officers of its choice, allegedly promoting a culture of victimisation and favouritism.

It is evident from the fact that most of the senior police officers who were transferred under the policy by the PTI government from one province to another and to federal units, have been sent back to their previous stations by the new government.

An official privy to the information told Dawn the ruling PMLN-led government has made transfers and postings of several police officers, leaving their mandatory tenure incomplete as the leadership of the PML-N and its allied party the PPP wanted these officers back in their respective provinces.

Recently, he says, the transfer of three senior police officers from Punjab to Sindh has particularly kicked off a debate on the bypassing of the rotation policy by the incumbent government, allegedly to accommodate the officers of its choice.

Some police officers believed the government has made a mockery of the rotation policy, that was adopted mainly to strengthen the federation.

He says all the three senior police officers -- Munir Ahmad Sheikh of 23rd common, Naeem Sheikh of 28th common and Javed Akbar Riaz, also of 23rd common --belonged to Sindh and were among several others who were transferred by the last government to Punjab under rotation policy.

He says these officers had served in Sindh for more than 15 years consecutively and the establishment division had placed them on the list of ‘least rotated offices”.Of them, the officer says, Munir Sheikh had to pay a heavy price as the then government had deferred his promotion at that time as a punishment for submitting his joining report in Punjab too late. However, his batch mates including Zulifqar Hameed, Usman Anwar and Saeed Wazir were promoted to the BS-21 and helding key positions in the provinces they wanted to serve. Usman Anwar served as additional IG special branch Punjab, Zulifqar Hameed as additional IG training, while Saeed Wazir is serving as Gilgit-Baltistan IG. He says Munir Sheikh was later posted as additional investigation IG in Punjab, Naeem Sheikh as DIG Legal, while Javed Akbar Riaz as Multan regional police officer (RPO) in December, last year.

However, he says, after a few months of their posting, the PMLN-led government surrendered their services to the establishment division. Later, The establishment division issued transfer orders of the police officers having Punjab domicile from Sindh to replace the three officers.

However, the officers who wer transferred from Sindh to Punjab, were also surrendered under rotation policy during the tenure of the PTI government.

The premature transfer of these officers from Sindh to Punjab further strengthened the impression that the incumbent government was least interested in implementing the rotation policy.

The officer says the PPP wanted the officers belonging to Sindh back in their home province, while the same was the case with the PML-N with regard to Punjab-based officers, promoting a culture of “politicising the police”.

He says many senior police officers who were transferred under the same policy and have no political connections were still serving out of their home provinces to complete the given mandatory period that showed selective implementation of the rotation policy.

On the other hand, he says, many police officers who are least rotated have been serving in Punjab for more than 10 years or so, allegedly because of favouritism.

Published in Dawn, June 4th, 2022