LAHORE: The recent fracas over transfer of Lahore Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Ghulam Mahmood Dogar involving federal and Punjab governments seems to “signify nothing” as the provincial authorities have yet not officially received the officer’s transfer orders from the Establishment Division (ED).

The hullabaloo had sparked when the CCPO’s transfer orders were shared on the social and conventional media on Sept 20 and the Parvez Elahi-led Punjab government challenged the writ of the centre, asserting it would not surrender the services of Mr Dogar, who allegedly played a key role in registration of a case against two PML-N federal ministers – Marriyum Aurangzeb and Mian Javed Latif – besides two senior officials of state-run Pakistan Television (PTV) on terrorism charges for “fanning religious hatred” against former premier Imran Khan and “endangering his life”.

The issue got further media hype when Chief Minister Parvez Elahi asserted that no civil officer from Punjab would report to the federal authorities without formal permission from the Punjab government.

Later, Mr Dogar reportedly also said he won’t relinquish the charge and was consequently called by the chief minister and was given a pat on his back for “showing the courage”. The chief minister lauded the officer saying, “Well done, come and hug me”.

Officer will get seven days to respond after province gets transfer letter

While the PML-N was fuming over federal officer’s defiant gesture, the party’s senior leader Rana Mashhood in a news conference said, “CCPO Lahore Dogar has violated his oath as a federal civil servant, while not accepting and following the notification issued by the Establishment Division”.

The PML-N leadership and those in the bureaucracy, considering Dogar’s stance as defiance, went on to discuss the punishment he could be slapped with by the ED.

As per rules, a federal service officer is required to relinquish a charge within seven days of issuance of transfer orders by the Establishment Division.

However, to the surprise for many, Mr Dogar’s transfer orders have yet not been received by the Punjab government. “No transfer order of the CCPO Lahore was been received by the Punjab chief secretary’s office until the weekend,” a source in the chief secretary’s office told Dawn.

Meanwhile, Punjab Home Minister retired Col Muhammad Hashim confirmed it while speaking in Faisalabad when he said Punjab received no transfer order of the CCPO Lahore so far. A senior bureaucrat, while commenting on the episode, quoted Shakespeare, “sound and fury, signifying nothing”. Terming the whole debate premature, he said: “The time has yet not arrived to initiate such a debate as the officer will get seven days (to respond) after the Punjab government formally receives the transfer orders.” Further explaining the procedure, he says that after officially receiving the orders, the chief secretary will mark the same to the administrative secretary of Services and General Administration Department (S&GAD), who will forward it to the Punjab inspector general of police (IGP) for his comments. Eventually, the Punjab government will be required to respond to the transfer order and may request the federal government to cancel it as it needs the officer’s services in the province, he elaborated.

Chief Minister Elahi, it may be mentioned, has already stated that he would not relieve Dogar and the officer should continue doing “good work” in Punjab. He said the CCPO would be fully supported by the Punjab government.

Meanwhile, some officers see the episode of Lahore CCPO’s transfer and the consequent debate as more a political than administrative matter.

Published in Dawn, September 26th, 2022