LAHORE, May 25: The caretaker provincial government notified Punjab Additional IG Special Branch Khan Baig as the IGP with look-after charge after Aftab Sultan relinquished the charge of his office on Saturday.

Mr Sultan, who was appointed the provincial police chief on March 29 in the caretaker set-up, has already been appointed the National Police Academy, Islamabad commandant. Before becoming the IGP, Mr Sultan worked in the same capacity.

Mr Baig has been given the look-after charge second time as he first time got additional assignment as IGP on Jan 2, 2013 after the retirement of Haji Habibur Rehman.

Belonging to the 8th Common of Civil Service of Pakistan, Mr Baig will continue till the appointment of regular IGP by incoming chief minister Shahbaz Sharif. Sources told Dawn that the chief minister-designate would appoint regular IGP after assuming the charge of his office in the first week of June.

They said Punjab Additional IG Counter-Terrorism Department Nasir Durrani and Balochistan IG Mushtaq Sukhaira were in the close run for the top slot. They were followed by Additional IGs Malik Ahmad Raza Tahir and Zulfiqar Cheema.

Sources said the regular appointment of the IGP was not made due to the Supreme Court’s direction to the caretakers not to make administrative decisions.

In his last official message circulated to his field force on Saturday, Mr Sultan stated: “We, as a team, are aware that the caretaker government of Punjab mandated the Punjab police to assist it to conduct fair, free, impartial and transparent election. The raison d’être of the government, then, was that our country was at a crossroads and that the caretaker bureaucracy, having been selected on absolute merit, possessed the ability to seize the challenge and to translate and transform the same into a defining moment for Pakistan.

“The expectations of the Chief Minister as well as the Cabinet from the selected team, particularly from the police, were to work with utmost diligence and to ensure an atmosphere where everyone stood accountable before law, where peace, tranquility and harmony prevailed and where public order reigned supreme.

“It is with utmost humility that I put down that the Punjab Police rose to the given challenges and its response was nothing short of overwhelming.”