ISLAMABAD: Retired Flt Lt Mohammad Khalid Khattak was appointed Inspector General of Islamabad Police (IGP) on Tuesday, officials said.

Mr Khattak is a deputy inspector general of police (DIG), holding the office of DIG Headquarters. He was given current charge of the office of IGP Islamabad on March 31, after the former police chief, Additional Inspector General of Police (AIG) Tariq Masood Yasin was transferred to Punjab Police, they added.

A notification issued by the Cabinet Secretariat Establishment Division said: “Flt Lt (retired) Mohammad Khalid Khattak, a BS-20 officer of Police Service of Pakistan presently serving as Inspector General of Police Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) Police, on current charge basis, is posted as Inspector General, Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) Police, under Interior Division, on regular basis, in his own pay and scale, with immediate effect and until further orders.”

Mr Khattak previously served in the Islamabad police in the early 2000s as an assistant superintendent of police and as AIG in early 2011, officials said. He was later promoted to DIG and appointed DIG headquarters in Islamabad.

He was then given charge as IGP Islamabad on a temporary basis on a couple of occasions, they said, such as when the IGP was on leave, removed or posted out until a regular appointment.

Mr Khattak was the acting IGP during the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and Pakistan Awami Tehreek sit-in on Constitution Avenue in August 2014, officials said. As DIG in September 2013, he was appointed head of a joint investigation team (JIT) to look into the murder of Lal Masjid cleric Ghazi Abdul Rasheed and his mother Sabiha Khatoon, which was disbanded within a few days of its constitution after the DIG and a superintendent of police who was also on the team asked then IGP Sikandar Hayat to exclude their names from the JIT.

Officials said he was also the acting senior superintendent of police in Islamabad in 2003 when Milat-i-Islamia chief Azam Tariq was killed in the capital.

The office of DIG headquarters has been vacant since Mr Khattak was appointed IGP, they said, and there has not been a regular appointment to the office of DIG operations since early March. The DIG security has been given acting charge as DIG operations, they said.

Published in Dawn, April 26th, 2017