LAHORE: Punjab police chief Abdul Kareem has given a go-ahead to call a meeting in a day or two to review the panels of police officers sent by his predecessor Dr Usman Anwar to the chief minister for interviews for appointment as district police officers (DPOs) of Sialkot, Okara, Jhelum and Toba Tek Singh.

The top posts of Sialkot and Toba Tek Singh had fallen vacant after the DPOs of these districts – Faisal Shahzad and Abadat Nisar, respectively – proceeded to a mandatory promotion course (Senior Management Course) in January.

While the two other DPOs of Jhelum and Okara, Tariq Aziz and Rashid Hydayt, had submitted requests to the then IG to transfer them citing some family/personal reasons.

Following these issues, the then IG had shortlisted the names of eight police officers to be considered for the positions.

A senior official who was privy to the information said that the officers who were shortlisted for these slots included Tariq Walait (36th Common), Asad Malhi (37th Common), Sajid Khokhar (37th Common), Akthar Farooq (37th Common) Benish Fatima (45th Common), Imran Khokhar (41th Common) and Iklhlaqullah Tarrar (44th Common).

He said that some of the officers were shortlisted before the beginning of the SMC course. The panels were later sent to the chief minister to hold interviews by the outgoing IG.

Meanwhile, the official said the process of interviews of these officers by the CM got delayed due to the change of the IG.

He said that the senior police officers in Central Police Office (CPO) believed that Sialkot and Okara must not be left unattended for a long period “being challenging districts.”As per reports, the new IG may replace all the police officers with new nominations in the next panels or may go for another proposal of reconsidering names of some of them.

Published in Dawn, February 16th, 2026