LAHORE: The Punjab government has reshuffled six DIGs and 17 SPs in yet another effort to improve law and order situation.

It has for the first time made an SSP ranked police officer city police officer (CPO) in Gujranwala. It has appointed Grade 19 police officer Syed Hammad Abid as CPO Gujranwala — a post occupied by the DIGs since the PTI formed government in Punjab.

A notification mentioned Mr Abid as SSP of BS-19 who replaced BS-20 police officer DIG Sarfraz Ahmad Falki, the officer who had been serving in Gujranwala for the last one year or so.

Inspector General of Police Rao Sardar told Dawn that the SSP ranked police officer had been posted CPO in Gujranwala because the department was facing shortage of the police officers in senior grades. He said the officer was enjoying a good repute and his posting was made in the “challenging city” of the province keeping in view his professional competence.

‘Junior’ officer has been made CPO Gujranwala

An official said that at present all the posts of the CPOs in major cities of Punjab were being headed by DIG ranked police officers, except Gujranwala. He said the former IGPs had devised a policy for the five major cities of the province to make appointment of officer of DIG rank as CPO keeping in view the high crime rate and other challenges.

The official said this policy was first introduced by Dr Syed Kaleem Imam when he was serving as IGP Punjab during the interim set up in 2018. Other police officers also announced that there would be no compromise.

It was evident from the previous three-year record that the successive IGPs had been filling the posts of the CPOs of Faisalabad, Rawalpindi, Multan and Gujranwala from the available slot of DIG officers.

In Rawalpindi, DIG ranked police officer Ahsan Younas is currently serving as CPO. This post was filled by the officers of BS 20 during the last three years or so. Faisal Rana and Ahsan Abbas served as CPO Rawalpindi in capacity of DIGs.

Similarly, Azhar Akram and Sohail Chaudhry had served in Faisalabad as CPO. Currently, it is being run by a BS-20 police officer Dr Mohammad Abid Khan.

In Multan, currently DIG Munir Masood Marth is serving as CPO while the said post was also filled by the police officers of BS 20 in the past including Imran Mahmood, Zubair Dereshak, Hassan Raza and Mehboob Rasheed.

Before the appointment of Syed Hammad Abid here on Friday, Rai Babar, Gohar Mushtaq Bhutta, Moeen Masood and Sarfraz Falki were DIGs who served as CPO Gujranwala during last three years or so.

The official said the previous IGPs had also formed a strategy for Lahore to make posting of DIG Operations from the BS-20 ranked officers which successfully continued during the last three-year tenure of the PTI government.

According to Friday’s notification, Punjab Elite Police DIG Riaz Nazir Gara has been transferred and posted as Punjab Highway Patrol vice Akram Naeem Bharoka who has been transferred and directed to report to the Services & General Administration Department, Punjab for further order. Former Lahore DIG Operations Sajid Kiani who was awaiting posting has been transferred and posted as Punjab Central Police Office Research and Development DIG vice Shahid Javed who has been posted as Punjab Elite Police DIG.

Among the 17 SPs, the transfer of Lahore Security SP Dost Mohammad drew attention of many. He was transferred twice during the last couple of weeks. He was serving as Lahore Model Town SP Operations when the IGP transferred him and posted as SP Security. He was again transferred on Friday.

SP Maaz Zafar who was recently posted as training AIG at CPO has again been transferred and posted as Okara SP investigation.

Published in Dawn, September 25th, 2021