LAHORE: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government in Punjab seems to be backtracking on party’s pre-poll promise of giving independence to police as Sunday’s massive reshuffle is not free from controversies.

Most of the officers posted as regional police officers (RPOs) and district police officers (DPOs), including Lahore CCPO and DIGs of Operations and Investigation wings, are in BS18 and 20.

Dawn spoke to several police officers to know reasons behind the unprecedented reshuffle and most of them were of the opinion that senior policemen who enjoyed important field positions during PML-N tenure had again managed to get major slots. They regretted that several honest and experienced officers who remained neglected for a long time have been ignored again.

An official said `efforts’ to grant autonomy to the police suffered a dent when Chief Minister Usman Buzdar (on the pattern of Shahbaz-led government) called top administration, including then IGP, to his office to transfer Pakpattan DPO.

He said Zulfiqar Hameed had been posted as the Lahore CCPO, an important field assignment in the provincial capital, at a time when he was attending the National Management Course (NMC) for promotion from BS20 to BS21.

According to the rules of the Establishment Division, an officer nominated for the mandatory course must be relieved from official duty. “The subject course is mandatory for promotion, therefore, controlling ministries/divisions/departments will have to relieve the nominated officer”, reads the official order issued by the Establishment Division.

Pointing out another issue, the official said the BS21 CCPO slot was filled by a BS20 officer in the presence of several senior colleagues already serving (in BS21) in Punjab.

He said Mr Zulfiqar was also in the list of those police officers who were to be transferred out of the Punjab province under the recently-introduced Inter-Provincial Transfer Policy.

“He seems to be lucky enough as he has also served against key slots, including DIG Investigation of Lahore and RPO of Sargodha and Sheikhupura during the last two consecutive tenures of the PML-N government and the caretaker setup.

Similarly, he said, another BS20 police officer Waseem Ahmad Sial had been posted as the Multan RPO against the BS21 sanctioned slot.

Another official said Mr Tariq Abbas Qureshi was made Gujranwala RPO by the PTI government on reports that the Shahbaz-led government had victimised him for almost 10 years.

About the Sheikhupura RPO, he said Mr Bilal Siddique Kamyana held important slots during all regimes, including PML-N and caretaker governments, due to his strong lobby.

An officer who is close to the CM Secretariat said the Punjab government appointed Sohail Habib Tajak as the Bahawalpur RPO although his name was on the list of those Pakistanis who owned undeclared assets abroad. He was also among those police officers who had served against key slots during the tenure of the PML-N and caretaker governments.

Mr Tajak however told Dawn that his assets were declared and that his name had wrongly been placed in the list. He said he was going to challenge the list in the court of law.

Revealing another inside story, the officer said BS18 police officer Amir Taimur was said to be a close relative of Chief Minister Usman Buzdar.

He was especially discussed in the meeting at the CM office (where the reshuffle was discussed/finalised) and was posted as the Bahawalpur DPO vice Dr Mohammad Iqbal who was known as the most honest, experienced and professional police officer in Punjab.

Earlier, Mr Taimur was serving as the SSP Investigation in Multan.

The official said that DIG Punjab Highway and Patrol Sohail Sukhera had been the most favourite candidate for the post of DIG Investigation Lahore for the last couple of weeks. However, his colleague Dr Inam Waheed managed to get the same slot due to a `strong reference’.

Published in Dawn, October 30th , 2018