LAHORE: After almost a decade, the Police Service of Pakistan (PSPs) managed to get back two key slots in the Chief Minister Office, somehow ‘eroding the monopoly’ of the Pakistan Administrative Service (formerly District Management Group).

The Punjab government appointed grade-18 police official Akhtar Farooq as personal staff officer to Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar and Sahiwal District Police Officer (DPO) Ghulam Mubashir Maken as chief coordinator for security/SSP (law & order) in CM Office.

The purpose of making appointment of the police officials was to improve coordination between the CM and their parent department (Punjab police) on law and order, administrative and other matters, an official privy to the information told Dawn.

After a decade, two police officials made CM’s aides

He said the posting of the PSPs in the CM Secretariat would help police officials represent their department in the eyes of the political government effectively.

Earlier, he said, the government officers with background from PAS/DMG had been occupying these top slots, holding their ‘monopoly’ in the CM Secretariat which otherwise were meant for the police officials according to the nature of the assignments.

“Still the DMG is holding another significant slot – additional secretary (law and order) to the chief minister - which is originally related to the police,” says the official.

In the tenure of the PML-N government, the PAS/DMGs retained their monopoly by occupying the slots, giving a tough time to the officers from PSP cadre, he said.

He also shared an interesting background of the posting of the two police officers saying that Mr Akhtar who has been appointed as PSO to the CM was having close links to the prime minister.

Earlier to this assignment, he was working as security officer to PM Imran Khan and [now] managed to get important assignment in Punjab as PSO to the CM.

About Mr Maken, the official said, Inspector General of Punjab Police Amjad Javed Saleemi had recommended a panel of three senior police officers to the chief minister.

Two others included Kasur DPO Muntazar Mehdi and Counter Terrorism Department Punjab SSP Dr Shahzad Asif. The chief minister interviewed all the three candidates for the in-question slot, the official said adding that he preferred Mubashar Maken as he has served as DPO DG Khan [during the PML-N tenure], the home district of Sardar Usman Buzdar.

Another interesting aspect of this development was that, the official said, Mr Maken was appointed against the newly created slot - chief coordinator for security/SSP (law & order).

Besides, his appointment was made on deputation for a period of three years, with no clarity as to what was the purpose behind this arrangement.

It is evident from the notification which reads, “The terms and conditions of this posting on a deputation basis shall be settled separately.”

Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2018

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