LAHORE: The Punjab government has posted DIG Prisons Mubashar Ahmad Khan, a BS-20 police officer, new Punjab Prisons Inspector General (IG).

A notification issued here on Friday said it had relieved Mian Salik Jalal (BS-20), Commandant, Punjab Prisons Staff Training College, Sahiwal, of the look-after charge of the post of IG Prisons.

Earlier, Mr Khan served as DIG Headquarters at the Inspectorate of Prisons Punjab.

An official said the posting of Mubashar Ahmad had irked some of his colleagues as the Punjab government bypassed three senior officers of the prisons service, including the one serving in BS-21. He said that according to the seniority list, former IG Prisons Mian Farooq Nazir was the senior-most and only grade 21 officer in the prisons service, who was ignored for the top slot.

Mr Nazir is currently serving as Member Enquiries-IV. The official said the other officers were Kokab Nadeem, currently serving as chairman of the chief minister’s inspection team, and Salik Jalal. The newly-posted IG Prisons was fourth on the seniority list and the government had finalised his name for the top slot from the panel of three candidates. The two other officers whose names were recommended for the posting were Mian Salik Jalal and Rana Rauf who is OSD.

Chief Minister Chaudhry Parvez Elahi interviewed the officers and accorded approval to the posting of Mubashar Malik as the IG prisons, he said. He said senior officers declared it a sheer violation of rules.

Earlier, he said, Mr Nazir had expressed his apprehension that the government was considering the names of his junior officers for the top slot. He had impressed on the chief minister the need to consider him for the IG Prisons slot being the senior-most officer among his competitors. He had also held meetings with the Punjab chief secretary and the additional chief secretary (Home) and submitted a detailed representation to the chief minister to seek his intervention for the appointment of the IG Prisons “in accordance with rules”.

Mr Nazir had also presented some legal documents to fight his case, claiming that he was the only eligible candidate to head his prisons department.

The official said the CM ignored Mr Nazir for the top slot as some officers of the department and the CM Secretariat had briefed him that the officer had relations with the PML-N. Mr Nazir denied the reports and conveyed to Parvez Elahi that he was ignored for the same slot in the past by the PML-N.

Published in Dawn, October 29th, 2022