LAHORE: The Punjab government is not appointing heads of six police departments despite the fact that eight DIG-ranked police officers, including a former inspector general of police (IGP) Islamabad, are awaiting posting.

The officers awaiting posting are DIGs Ahsan Younas, Khurram Ali Shah, Mirza Faran Baig, Waqas Nazir, Kashif Mushtaq Kanju, Faisal Raja, Moeen Masood and Tariq Chohan.

Serving in BPS-20, some of these police officers have outstanding experience and career, says an official privy to the development. The IGP is also awaiting the attention of the new chief minister to fill the vacant slots in order to run the department smoothly.

On the other hand, the official source says, the delay in appointments has halted the official work as the six departments of police are functioning without regular heads. Those being gravely affected is the traffic police department as it deals with the traffic management issues besides the matter of driving licenses.

The department is being run on a look-after basis and the seat has been lying vacant since the transfer of DIG Shariq Jamal on May 19. The official claims that Jamal was among seven ‘unwanted’ police officers of BPS-20 whose services were surrendered from Punjab to the Establishment Division (ED).

Following the transfers of these DIG-ranked police officers, the other slots of the police department also fell vacant. Such posts included DIG Legal Punjab, DIG Operations, DIG Logistics, DIG Punjab Highway and Patrol (PHP), DIG technical procurement besides DIG traffic Punjab.

The source terms the posts in-question important due to the nature of official assignments. The departments of technical procurement and logistics require heads immediately to run the affairs because of the significance of the jobs. Similarly, the job of the DIG legal also requires attention because hundreds of cases are pursued in the courts besides many other pending requests/letters the department receives from all over the province require opinion.

The slot of DIG Operations has also assumed greater importance, particularly in the wake of the prevailing security and law & order issues. During the recent long march of the PTI, the DIG operations played a mediating role between the Punjab government and the provincial police officer to share useful information and get the orders implemented. This post also fell vacant after the transfer of DIG Kamran Adil on May 20 who was posted as DIG Investigation Lahore.

Published in Dawn, June 8th, 2022