Additional Inspector General (AIG) Mushtaq Ahmed Mahar was on Wednesday removed as the chief of Karachi police.

According to a notification issued by the office of Sindh Inspector General Amjad Javed Saleemi, Mahar has been transferred and directed to report to Central Police Office (CPO) Sindh.

Dr. Amir Ahmed Shaikh, a BS-21 officer, has been transferred and posted as the Karachi police chief to replace Mahar, a second notification read. Before this, Shaikh was serving as AIG Finance, Logistics and Welfare, Sindh.

Speaking to Dawn, Mahar, a BS-21 officer, said that he had written to the IG and Sindh government two days after the July 25 elections, stating that the three-year period of his tenured service had expired.

The notification announcing the police officer's transfer was subsequently issued.

Mahar was appointed as the Karachi police chief in July 2015, when he replaced AIG Ghulam Qadir Thebo.

In July 2017, AIG Mahar was transferred and appointed as traffic police chief amid reservations of some stakeholders about the targeted operations underway in Karachi.

Just five weeks after the major reshuffle in the police hierarchy, however, the Sindh government had changed the city police chief again by bringing back AIG Mahar in place of AIG Thebo, who was then transferred and posted as AIG Traffic.