LAHORE: The Punjab government reshuffled 48 police officers, including five district police officers (DPOs), on Friday.

The appointment of DPOs was made following the approval of Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz. An official said the CM interviewed nearly a dozen police officers in the presence of the chief secretary, inspector general of police and home secretary for the five posts of the heads of five districts, namely Sahiwal, Sialkot, Bahawalnagar, Pakpattan and Jhelum. The IG police had proposed a panel of the police officers to be considered for the top posts of abovementioned districts.

The police officers included Tahir Rehman Khan, Sadiq Baloch, Abdul Wahab, Asadur Rehman, Mujibur Rehman, Javed Chadhar Kamran Asghar, Muhammad Bin Ashraf etc.

Interestingly, he said, the name of Faisal Shahzad, a BPS-19 officer who was serving as DPO Sahiwal, was not in the panel proposed by the IGP.

48 police officers transferred

During the interviews, the meeting suddenly discussed the name of Faisal Shahzad too and his two year tenure of his posting as DPO Sahiwal, the official said.

On further inquiry, the IG told the CM that Shahzad was one of the finest police officers with high integrity and professionalism. He further told the meeting that Faisal Shahzad’s performance also remained outstanding as the DPO Sahiwal.

During a brief discussion, the CM Punjab endorsed the viewpoint of the IGP and issued directions to consider Mr Shahzad too in the race for the postings of five DPOs.

After assessing the service record and intelligence reports, Maryam Nawaz accorded approval for the appointments of the new DPOs.

As per the notification issued on Friday, Sahiwal DPO Faisal Shahzad was transferred and posted as Sialkot DPO vice Rana Umar Farooq who has been directed to report to the Central Police Office.

Lahore Capital City District Internal Accountability Branch SSP Rana Tahir Rehman was posted as the Sahiwal DPO.

Punjab SPU Additional Director Admin Tariq Aziz was transferred and posted as Jhelum DPO vice Nasir Mahmood Bajwa.

Rawalpindi Operations SSP Hafiz Kamran Asghar was transferred and posted as Bahawalnagar DPO vice Naseebullah Khan who was transferred and posted as Rawalpindi CTD SSP.

Similarly, Jhang investigation SP Javed Ibal Chadhar was transferred and posted as Pakpatan DPO vice Tariq Walait who was transferred and posted as Punjab CTD research and analysis SSP.

Meanwhile, the IGP also issued transfer/posting orders of 37 DSPs across the province.

Published in Dawn, January 11th, 2025