PESHAWAR / MUZAFFARABAD: The federal government on Saturday changed the chief secretaries and police chiefs of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK).

The Establishment Divi­sion issued two notifications to replace KP’s Chief Secretary Naveed Kamran Baloch and Ins­pector General of Police (IGP) Salahuddin Khan Mehsud.

One of the notifications says Saleem Khan, a BPS-21 officer of the Pakistan Administrative Service and secretary of the energy and power department, has been appointed chief secretary of KP.

The other notification says that IGP Mehsud, a BPS-21 Police Service of Pakistan officer, has been transferred and his services have been placed at the disposal of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) government for appointment as AJK IGP, while Mohammad Naeem Khan, a BPS-22 PSP officer, who headed the AJK police, has been transferred and posted as KP IGP.

The services of Mathar Niaz Rana, a BS-21 officer of Pakistan Administrative Services (PAS), presently posted as additional secretary of industries and production division, have been placed at the disposal of the AJK government for appointment as chief secretary under Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan Division.

Mr Rana has replaced Khawaja Daud Ahmad, also a BS-21 PAS officer, whose services have been placed at the disposal of the Supreme Court of Pakistan for posting as additional registrar, on a deputation basis, for three years.

Mr Ahmad was transferred and posted as AJK chief secretary on December 19, 2018.

In KP, the transfers came amid reports of a tug of war between police and bureaucracy over the policing system for tribal districts as the former pushes for the absorption of Khasadar and Levies Forces into the police department, while the latter wants to keep these forces under its control.

Sources told Dawn that the removal of the chief secretary and the IGP was prompted by their divergent views on creation and deployment of police in the tribal districts. They said the difference of opinion often surfaced in the apex committee’s meetings, which were attended by the provincial chief minister and governor and Peshawar’s corps commander.

A source said while IGP Mehsud complained that the bureaucracy was creating hurdles in his work, civil servants insisted that the police chief was on a solo flight and had refused to share and coordinate with them the strategy and mechanism for recruitment and deployment of police in the tribal districts.

He said not only was the chief secretary too weak to carry forward the reforms introduced by the previous Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government in the province but also the ruling party’s senior leadership believed that reforms were wasted by the chief secretary’s inefficiency.

Another source claimed that the KP police chief was the main target of the government’s move whereas removal of the chief secretary was a balancing act. He claimed that schism between the two top officials had grown to such an extent that the police were not ready to listen to the bureaucracy, while bureaucrats claimed that the police were trying to create a parallel system of governance in the tribal districts.

The source said that the bureaucracy was even planning to go on strike on the issue.

KP Chief Minister Mahmood Khan claimed in a statement that the chief secretary had asked him to transfer him about five months ago, but he was asked to stay put until his replacement was available.

Despite efforts, KP Information Minister Shaukat Yousafzai could not be contacted for comments.

Published in Dawn, February 10th, 2019