RAWALPINDI: After an inquiry ordered by the inspector general of police (IGP) Punjab against 19 station house officers posted by the city police officer (CPO) a week ago, the regional police officer (RPO) on Tuesday removed seven of them and directed them to report to the Police Lines Headquarters.

In police circles, the CPO’s posting of the SHOs and their removal by the RPO in light of the investigation is being considered as a surprising move.

The posting of 19 SHOs about seven days ago had been made by the newly-posted CPO Omer Saeed Malik on the recommendation of a six-member committee, comprising the SSP investigation, SSP operations, SP headquarters and the divisional SPs.

Of the 19 SHOs, two were suspended by the CPO only five days after their posting. They were SHOs Sadiqabad and Gujar Khan. Despite the fact that several of the officials had numerous suspensions, dismissals and prior criminal records, they were made the in-charges of police stations.

As IGP Sardar Ali Khan knew about the posting of 19 SHOs, he expressed displeasure and ordered a discrete inquiry by Additional Inspector General (AIG) of Police Zulfiqar Hameed who arrived in Rawalpindi two days ago and launched the inquiry, said sources.

Following the inquiry, the IGP directed RPO Ashfaq Ahmad Khan to remove seven of the SHOs.

The sources said the removal of seven SHOs and their transfer to Police Lines Headquarters was based on administrative grounds. However, their replacements are yet to be announced.

The transferred SHOs are Sub-inspector (SI) Nadeem Zafar (Murree), SI Hassan Raza (Mandra), SI Nasir Mumtaz (Civil Lines), SI Tahir Ahmad Rehan (Saddar Bairooni), SI Rashid Mehmood (Pirwadhai) and SI Shafqat Ali (Ratta Amral).

The IGP had already issued a guideline regarding posting of police officers according to which: “Only police officers maintaining high standards of competence and integrity shall be posted to field assignments. If an officer posted to a field assignment is challenged on the basis of sufficient incriminating evidence in a criminal case, he shall immediately be suspended and removed from field assignment or recommended to the authority for suspension or transfer.”

The guideline said the officer may be reinstated/posted to a field assignment if it is found that sufficient incriminating evidence does not exist to challan him during the course of any subsequent investigation or the officer is acquitted by court.

Published in Dawn, February 9th, 2022