LAHORE: The Punjab government, in an unprecedented move, is going to 'surrender' in one-go 90 senior police officers to the federal government for their deployment in other provinces.

For this purpose, the Central Police Office (CPO) has prepared a draft report carrying the list of the senior cops ranging from grade 18 to 21.

Of them, four police officers are of grade 21 and serving as additional IGs at various positions in Punjab. They include Additional IGP Establishment Azhar Hameed Khokhar, Managing Director of Punjab Safe Cities Authority Ali Aamir Malik, Additional IG Investigation Malik Abubakar Khudabakhsh and Regional Police Officer of Gujranwala Shahid Hanif.

The list was prepared and finalised on the direction of the Cabinet Division under a new policy which defined new protocols of countrywide reshuffle at mass level in the PSP cadre, targeting those police cops who had worked for five years or above consecutively in a province.

The policy, drafted by prime minister’s adviser Mohammad Shahzad Arbab, a DMG officer, was accordingly approved by the PM Secretariat to implement it in letter and spirit, an official in the Establishment Division told Dawn.

He said the report prepared by the CPO Punjab was carrying names, current designation, posting time and tenure of continued service in the province.

However, he said, the new policy was hit by a controversy in the starting phase when the government got a strong reaction from the bureaucracy and the PSPs who considered it a political move to victimise them.

Initially, the policy had set 10 years or above period of the police officers as a benchmark for the inter-provincial reshuffles.

However, the resentment in the PSPs further increased after the federal government reduced the period to five years. He further said three provincial governments including that of Sindh and Punjab had already written to Islamabad showing their concern over the new policy, declaring it against democratic norms.

According to the report, the grade 21 police officer Azhar Hameed Khokhar (21 years), Ali Aamir Malik (19 years), DIGs Sahibzada Mohammad Shahzad Sultan (19 years) and Zulfiqar Hameed (18 years) have longest spell of their posting in Punjab.

Similarly, the report says, former Additional IG of Special Branch Mohammad Farooq Mazhar and Sargodha RPO Sultan Chaudhry have also served in Punjab police for 16 years period each.

Of them, two grade 20 police officers appeared to be lucky enough, including Farooq Mazhar and Sahibzada Shahzad Sultan, as they managed to get new assignments in the Intelligence Bureau, ensuring that they would stay in Punjab.

Their transfers were made on Thursday night, the officials said adding that in the backdrop of this new development, more senior cops are reportedly using their influence to get new assignments to avoid inter-provincial reshuffle.

The report further says as many as 25 police officers (DIGs) of grade 20 and 32 of grade 19 are also in the proposed list besides 28 officers of grade 18.

As most of them have served in the last two tenures of the PML-N government in Punjab, the incumbent administration of the province wants their inter-provincial transfers in the upcoming mass reshuffle.

A debate is going on in the police circles that the transfer of nearly 90 senior police officers out of the province in one-go may lead to “human-resource crisis in top police grades” in the largest province.

Some police officers say the incumbent government in Islamabad may find it difficult to get the new policy implemented.

They believe as a majority of the officers in the list have already served in other provinces for a certain period defined under the already-enforced rotation policy, the upcoming transfer/postings may lead to litigation.

Published in Dawn, September 8th, 2018