MUZAFFARABAD: The federal government on Sunday transferred and posted a Grade-20 officer of the Police Service of Pakistan (PSP) as the new inspector general of police (IGP) in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK).

According to a notification issued by the Establishment Division, Capt (retired) Liaqat Ali Malik, who was serving under the Punjab government as DIG Establishment, has been transferred and his services placed at the disposal of the AJK government with immediate effect and until further orders.

The notification stated that the posting had been made under Section 10 of the Civil Servants Act, 1973, read with Clause viii of the Karachi Agreement, 1949.

Clause viii of the Karachi Agreement, signed in 1949 by then AJK president Sardar Mohammad Ibrahim Khan, Muslim Conference leader Chaudhry Ghulam Abbas and federal minister without portfolio Mushtaq Ahmed Gurmani, provides that the services of officers loaned to the AJK government would be placed at its disposal, after which they would be formally appointed through a notification in the AJK gazette.

Before 2014, officers posted by the federal government to at least five key positions in AJK — commonly referred to as “lent officers” — would assume charge upon the issuance of a notification by the Establishment Division.

However, following differences between the then PPP government in Muzaffarabad and the PML-N government in Islamabad, it was mutually agreed that transfers and postings of lent officers in AJK would take effect only after notification by the Services and General Administration Department (S&GAD) with the approval of the AJK prime minister.

Mr Malik replaces Rana Abdul Jabbar, who had been posted to AJK in May 2024, and was nominated for the four-month National Management Course in Lahore early last month. As a stopgap arrangement, Additional IGP Yasin Qureshi, who belongs to the AJK police service, had been assigned the additional charge of the region’s police chief.

Published in Dawn, February 16th, 2026