• Police heads, commissioners set to be replaced
• ECP okays transfer of several police officers
• Khadim Rind to be made Karachi police chief
• Notifications may be issued after chehlum

KARACHI: While the schedule for holding general elections has not been announced despite dissolution of assemblies last month, the Election Commission of Paki­stan has allowed a major reshuffle in the Sindh police under which not only Karachi police chief, but those in other divisions and districts are also going to be replaced once the provincial government issued a formal notification, it emerged on Tuesday.

Government sources said that the official notifications could be issued after chehlum of Imam Husain, which falls on Thursday.

Recently, on the instructions of the ECP, the caretaker federal government had posted new inspector general of police and chief secretary in Sindh.

The ECP also wanted the caretaker provincial government to carry out a major shake-up in provincial bureaucracy and very soon a majority of the administrative secretaries and commissioners of divisions would be replaced.

Police sources said that it appeared that most of the officers, who were not posted in the field, would be adjusted. However, they recalled that in the last election of 2018, the officers posted in the field were ‘reshuffled’.

The officers familiar with this development told Dawn that they were uncertain and to some extent confused over inordinate delay/late in issuing of notifications.

They pointed out that the delay of two weeks in announcement of the officers had created ‘lots of confusion’ among officers and police work was “disturbed due to uncertainty”.

Informed sources said that there were some surprises in the proposed list of police officers as some of them who were widely believed to have good ‘understanding’ with former political ‘masters’ of the Sindh province had not been given any posting.

While a few others who were allegedly involved in ‘irrelevant activities’ have also been sidelined.

Curiously, the sources said that some of the officers who were recently appointed had also been transferred.

The sources said that now list of officers expected to be transferred/appointed had gone viral on social and electronic medias, but official notifications had not been issued, which was causing ‘more confusion’.

The sources said that during last general elections, the orders/notifications were issued and the police officers came to know about their posting, but now it appeared that the notifications would be issued after Chehlum.

According to the list of transfers/posting approved by the ECP, Additional IGP Special Branch Khadim Hussain Rind, BS-21 would be appointed as Additional IGP Karachi while incumbent Allah Bux, also known as Javed Akhtar Odho, would be transferred.

Similarly, Syed Asad Raza, awaiting posting would be appointed as South-DIG while Asim Khan, retired Capt Ghulam Azfar Mahesar, Tariq Razzaq Dharejo, Tanveer Alam Odho and retired Capt Pervaiz Ahmed Chandio would likely be appointed as DIGs of West Zone in Karachi, East Zone in Karachi, Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas and Shaheed Benazirabad range/division respectively.

Larkana range DIG Abdul Hameed Khoso would be transferred and appointed as DIG Sukkur from where Javed Soonharo Jiskani would be transferred and made DIG Larkana.

SSPs of eight districts in Karachi would also be transferred.

According to the proposed list, Imran Qureshi, Amjad Hayat, Mohammed Arif Aslam, Mahzoor Ali, Faisal Abdullah Chachar, Syed Irfan Ali Bahadur, Tariq Illahi Mastoi and Hassan Sardar Ahmed Khan would be appointed as SSPs of District South, City, Keamari, West, Central, East, Malir and Korangi respectively.

Barring Hassan Sardar Niazi who was transferred from Malir to Korangi, all other SSPs were new faces in the district operation wing of the police.

Purportedly outgoing Korangi SSP Mohammed Tariq Nawaz would be appointed as SSP Jamshoro.

SSP Amjad Ahmed Shaikh would be transferred from Shikarpur to Hyderabad while incumbent SSP South (Investigation) Abraiz Ali Abbasi would be transferred to be appointed as SSP Tando Allahyar.

Saleem Shah, Noorul Haq Rind, Shabir Ahmed Sethar, Ali Bux aka Aftab Nizamani and Shahla Qureshi would be appointed as SSPs of Tando Mohammed Khan, Matiari, Dadu, Thatta and Sujawal.

Moreover, SSPs Qamar Raza Jiskani, retired Capt Haider Raza, retired Capt Sadam Husain, Abid Ali Baloch, Adil Memon, Ali Mardan Khoso, Abdul Khalique, Irfan Ali Samo, Dr Samiullah Soomro, Munir Ahmed Khuhro, Syed Abdul Raheem Shirazi, Muhammad Asif Raza, Mir Rohail Khan, Khalid Mustafa Korai and Syed Aamir Abbas Shah would likely to be appointed as police heads of the districts Badin, Shaheed Benazirabad, Sanghar, Naushahro Feroze, Mirpurkhas, Tharparkar, Umerkot, Sukkur, Khairpur, Ghotki, Larkana, Qambar Shahdadkot, Kashmore, Shikarpur and Jacobabad.

Published in Dawn, September 6th, 2023