LAHORE: The Chief Minister office has once again become a ‘battle ground’ for the new tug of war between the Pakistan Administrative Service (PAS) and the Police Service of Pakistan (PSP) when the former managed to get the police officer serving as SSP law & order transferred to replace him by the official from the PAS.

To an utter surprise to the PSPs, the Punjab chief secretary issued a notification on Monday night, transferred SSP law & order at CM office Mohammad Usman Tipu and posted him as chief security officer at the CM office.

This move has encouraged the officers of the PAS to the extent that they also started lobbying to get the grade-20 post of Punjab Anti-Corruption Establishment director general back from the PSPs as it was occupied by a senior police officer.

The post of SSP law & order was one of the three important slots at the CM office which had been managed by the Punjab police officers for the last many years.

Police official holding SSP law & order slot made chief security officer

The other two slots included the personal staff officer (PSO) to the chief minister on law & order and the chief security officer (CSO).

The police officers of BS-18 to BS-19 had been getting postings against these important slots of the Chief Minister Office since the PTI’s Usman Buzdar was the CM.

An official privy to the development said that the PSPs had lobbied at various forums through a ‘relative’ police officer of the then CM (Usman Buzdar) to occupy the post of SSP law and order from the PAS (formerly DMG) through certain amendments.

Mubashir Maken, Akhtar Farooq, Ali Zia and Usman Tepu had served as SSP law & order at the CM office so far while the PSPs including Atif Nazir, Rana Umar Farooq, Akthar Farooq and Zain Asim remained posted as PSO to CM on law and order.

Similarly, the post of CSO was also occupied by the PSPs including Rana Umar Farooq, Abdullah Lak, Furqan Bilal, Imran Malik, Abdul Wahab and Hamza Humayun.

Since then, he said, the PAS officers were very upset for losing the important slot at the CM office and were struggling hard to grab an opportunity to get it back from the PSPs.

However, the police high-ups had ‘foiled all the attempts’ of the officers of the ‘rival cadre’ and continued to manage the postings even during the tenure of Chaudhry Parvez Elahi and Mohsin Naqvi as the CM Punjab.

The official said the slot of SSP law & order was highly important as compared to other ones because of the nature of its significant assignments as the police officer holding the position in-question used to mediate between the CM and the IG police Punjab.

He would provide a cushion for the IG police to get some favourable meetings with the CM for the transfer postings and other matters related to the department.

The officer also used to lobby for the Punjab police, particularly, the PSPs to win the confidence of the CM Punjab for his department.

During the last tenure of Shahbaz Sharif as CM Punjab, he said, the post largely belonged to the officers from the PAS/DMG.

The official said the grade-19 post of SSP law & order required the appointment of senior most police officers in the rank in-question for dealing the highly sensitive assignments.

However, the recent posting of a junior officer of grade-18 Usman Tipu, who belonged to the 43 common, probably could not play his due role as was witnessed in the past by his senior colleagues against the same slot, providing an opportunity to the PAS group to make a move to get the space in the CM office, he said.

The senior officers from the PAS in Punjab lobbied, prompting the chief secretary to get the seat vacated from the police officer.

This decision was so sudden that the PSPs and the IG police couldn’t make tangible efforts to secure the seat, the official said.

He added that there were reports that the chief secretary shortlisted a few names of officers from PAS to fill the above-mentioned slot as additional secretary law & order at the CM office.

Of them, former DC Lahore Umar Sher Chattha was said to be a strong contender, the officer said.

There were also some reports that the provincial government was considering a woman police officer to be posted as new SSP law & order since Maryam Nawaz assumed the office of the chief minister.

For this purpose, the name of SSP Investigation Lahore Dr Anoosh Masood Chaudhry was tipped as a strong candidate followed by SP Sydra.

However, the CS’s notification left the PSPs in shock as they believed that the police have lost its ground at the CM office after enjoying the seat for many years.

The official said some senior Punjab police officers were making “efforts” to hold the slot for the police.

Published in Dawn, March 13th, 2024