LAHORE, April 8: In a second phase of police reshuffle ahead of the upcoming general election, the Punjab government transferred and posted three additional inspectors general (IGs) and 19 deputy IGs on Monday.

The Punjab police chief also transferred and posted 29 senior police officers, including senior superintendents of police (SSP) and additional SPs, and 204 sub-divisional police officers (SDPOs) across the province.

On Sunday, the caretaker Punjab government had changed nine regional police officers (RPOs), the Lahore capital city police officer, Lahore DIGs of operations and investigation, and 36 district police officers.

Divisional SPs of the capital city and district police and few from the city districts have been removed and some of them transferred to other divisions and towns.

According to a notification issued from the Services & General Administration, Punjab Additional IG Special Branch vice Nasir Khan Durrani was transferred and posted Punjab Additional Counter-Terrorism Department IG against an existing vacancy; awaiting posting Rai Altaf Hussain was posted Punjab Research and Development Additional IG; and outgoing Rawalpindi RPO Captain (retired) Muhammad Zubair was directed to report to the headquarters.

DIG Ghulam Mehmood Dogar was posted Multan City Police Officer vice Dr Muhammad Rizwan who was directed to report to the headquarters; Gujranwala CPO DIG Abdur Razzaque Cheema was transferred and posted Rawalpindi CPO vice Azhar Hameed Khokhar who was posted Punjab PHP DIG; SSP Riffat Muktar was posted Faisalabad CPO against an existing vacancy; SSP Tariq Nawaz Malik was posted Gujranwala CPO.

DIGs Chaudhry Shafique Ahmad (outgoing DIG Investigation Lahore), Aamir Zulfiqar Khan (outgoing Multan RPO), Muhammad Amlish (outgoing CCPO of Lahore), Muhammad Tahir Rai (outgoing DIG of operations Lahore), Tariq Masood Yasin (outgoing Faisalabad RPO) and Akhtar Omer Hayat Lalika (outgoing DG Khan RPO) were posted DIG Welfare Punjab, Punjab CTD DIG, DIG Headquarters CPO, DIG Operations Punjab, DIG Training Punjab, DIG Investigation Monitoring Punjab.

Outgoing Sheikhupura RPO Zulfiqar Ahmad Cheema (BS-21) was surrendered to the federal government.

Outgoing Bahawalpur RPO Ghulam Rasool Zahid was directed to report to the headquarters; Lahore Security Division DIG Ahmad Mubarik Ahmad was posted Chuhng Police Training College Commandant; DIG Welfare Saad Akhtar Bharwana was posted DIG Crimes Investigation; awaiting posting Zahid Hussain Sherazi was posted Lahore Security Division DIG; Zaeem Iqbal Sheikh was posted DIG Political School Intelligence Special Branch; while Salman Chaudhry was posted DIG Information Technology Punjab.

According to a notification issued from the Central Police Office on Monday, awaiting posting SSP Hussain Habib Imtiaz was posted AIG Finance Central Police Office against an existing vacancy; Punjab Counter-Terrorism Department SSP Khurram Shakoor was transferred and posted Multan SSP (operations) vice Muhammad Gohar Nafees who was posted Faisalabad SSP (operations); Punjab Investigation Branch SSP Dr Muhammad Abid Khan was transferred and posted Lahore Internal Accountability Division SSP against an existing vacancy; and awaiting posting SSP Babar Bakht Qureshi was posted AIG Development CPO.Faisalabad Iqbal Town SP Javed Iqbal was transferred and posted Lahore Saddar SP Operations vice Adeel Hussain Chandio who was posted Lahore City SP (operations); Lahore City SP Operations Imtiaz Sarwar was posted Sargodha additional SP against an existing vacancy; Bahawalnagar investigation SP Irfanullah Khan was transferred and posted Lahore Civil Lines SP (investigation) vice Mohammad Tariq Aziz who has been posted Lahore Model Town SP Operations; Lahore Model Town SP (operations) Muhammad Awais Malik was posted Sialkot additional SP against an existing vacancy; Sialkot SP (investigation) Asad Sarfaraz Khan was transferred and posted Lahore Cantt SP (investigation) vice Fida Husain who was posted Lahore Crimes Record Office SP; and Lahore CRO SP Jamaat Ali Bukhari was directed to report to the Central Police Office.

Furthermore, Faisalabad Punjab Highways Patrol SP Zahid Mehmood was transferred and posted Lahore Iqbal Town SP Investigation vice Sahibzada Bilal Omer who was posted Faisalabad Lyallpur Town SP against an existing vacancy; Punjab Special Branch SP Shah Nawaz was transferred and posted Lahore Model Town SP Investigation vice Ijaz Shafi Dogar who was posted Bahawalpur SP Investigation against existing vacancy; Faisalabad Sadar SP Tauseef Haider was transferred and posted Lahore Iqbal Town SP Operations vice Shahid Hafeez who was directed to the CPO; Sheikhupura SP Investigation Omar Riaz was transferred and posted Lahore Cantt SP operations vice Maroof Masood Safdar Wahla who was posted Lahore Civil Lines SP Operations; Lahore Civil Lines SP Operations (in his own pay and scale) Dr Farrukh Raza was directed to report to the CPO; and Rawalpindi PHP SP Shahzad Nadeem Bukhari was transferred and posted Lahore City SP Investigation vice Syed Amin Bokhari.

Similarly, Punjab Telecommunication SP Mustafa Hameed Malik was transferred and posted Lahore Sadar SP Investigation vice Agha Ramzan Ali; awaiting posting Khalid Masood was posted Lahore Crimes Investigation Agency SP vice Muhammad Umar Virk who was posted Punjab CTD SP against existing vacancy.

Police circles have raised concerns over sweeping police reshuffle in Punjab where the PML-N government concluded its tenure.

Former field police officers say that the entire reshuffle up to the SDPO level and expected change up to the SHO level creates an impression that majority of previous field officers were hand-picked of the Shahbaz-led government in violation of merit.

However, a senior police officer who recently took over a key position in the caretaker says that the reshuffle is purely on merit, adding that a good number of police officers who we already working in field have been adjusted in field positions again.

Sources privy to the transfers and postings claimed that specific groupings in Punjab police again dominated in recent reshuffles as a leading group managed to get their blue-eyed officers adjusted on key field postings.

They said majority of new RPOs, DIGs and DPOs had very limited field experience in their entire service.