ISLAMABAD: In a reshuffle in top police hierarchy, the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government on Wednesday removed Wajid Zia from the most powerful Police Service of Pakistan (PSP) cadre post of Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) director general and assigned him the position of National Police Bureau director general.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Inspector General of Police Sanaullah Abbasi has been appointed as the new FIA DG.

Mr Zia headed the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) that probed the Panama­gate, leading to disqualification of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif. Being the JIT head, he was the star prosecution witness in all three references against former premier. He was removed from the powerful post of the FIA DG about two weeks after the government announcement that the FIA would reinvestigate the Hudaibya case against the Sharif family.

On May 25, the information minister Fawad Chaudhry and adviser to the prime minister on interior and accountability Mirza Shahzad Akbar briefed the court reporters that the government had principally decided to reopen the Hudaibya case and the task would be assign to the FIA within a couple of weeks.

Sources in the FIA said Mr Zia was removed from the position due to his ‘non-cooperative’ behaviour, because the government wanted to assign a number of inquiries to the FIA in addition to the Hudaibya case reinvestigation. The other inquiries, which the FIA was being directed to probe, were based on the evidence procured by the one-man commission on Broadsheet Commission.

A senior PSP official told Dawn that the posting of FIA DG Zia as NPB DG, a BS-22 post, was quite unattractive and unwanted position, clearly manifesting that this transfer was not a matter of routine but was a ‘forced’ transfer.

According to the notification issued by the establishment division, Wajid Zia, a BS-22 officer of the PSP, presently serving as FIA DG, is transferred and posted as NPB DG under the interior division with immediate effect and until further orders.

Another notification stated: “With the approval of the federal government, Mr Sanaullah Abbasi, a BS-22 officer of PSP, presently serving as Provincial Police Officer (PPO), Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, is transferred and posted as FIA DG under interior division, in terms of Section 3(2) of the FIA Act, 1974, with immediate effect and until further orders.”

The federal government also appointed Mozzam Jan Ansar, a PSP officer of BS-21 who is presently serving at Frontier Constabulary (FC) as its commandant, as the new KP police chief.

Salahuddin Khan, a PSP officer of BS-21 who is serving as the inspector general of police in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, has been posted as FC commandant in place of Mr Ansar.

A day earlier the establishment division had notified Mohammad Sohail Tajak, a PSP officer of BS-20 posted in the Intelligence Bureau, as the AJK police chief.

Published in Dawn, June 10th, 2021