PESHAWAR: Additional inspector general of police, Special Branch, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Salahuddin Khan Mehsud is most likely to be appointed the new provincial police chief.

The seat of the police chief fell vacant after the retirement of Nasir Khan Durrani on March 17.

Additional IG (headquarters) Syed Akhtar Ali Shah has been looking after the office since then.

An official source told Dawn on Wednesday that the name of Mr Mehsud was on a panel of candidates being considered for the vacancy.

He said the other candidates were Akhtar Ali Shah and Motorways Police inspector general Shaukat Hayat.

Another source said Mr Mehsud met Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in Islamabad on Wednesday. He said the prime minister wished him good luck.

The source said the prime minister’s office sent Mr Mehsud’s file to the Establishment Division, which was likely to notify his appointment as the next provincial police chief shortly.

Mr Mehsud, a Police Service of Pakistan officer, who belongs to South Waziristan Agency, joined the police department in 1989 as an under-training ASP. He was promoted to BPS-21 in February this year. He has served as Peshawar SP (traffic), Charsadda and Bannu SP, Peshawar CID SP, Swat SSP, Frontier Reserve Police deputy commandant, and DIG Kohat.

Mr Mehsud also headed the counter terrorism department from January 2015 to 2016 during the Zarb-i-Azb operation and was appointed the AIG of the Special Branch March last year.

Published in Dawn, March 30th, 2017