LAHORE, Dec 10: The fresh reshuffle in the Punjab police setup is being seen as the re-emergence of political interference in administrative matters.

More replacements at the top level are expected to take place in the province after seven changes during the last two days.

Faisalabad CIA police SP Raja Munawar Hussain was transferred on Tuesday and posted as Gujrat police SP while his predecessor, Mr Ahmed Mubarik, was posted as Faisalabad CIA SP.

Mr Masood Shah of the NWFP, presently serving at the Police Academy, Islamabad, is being tipped as the new Punjab IGP. This reporter contacted the IGP house to confirm the reports but he was not available.

The political interference is considered as the main hurdle in the improvement of the police working and a ‘genuine excuse’ for the force to continue with its wrongdoings. It now threatens police reforms introduced recently by the army government to change the police culture.

A senior Punjab police officer who had been involved in the process of intruding police reforms, said: “Running the new police system smoothly really needs no outside interference. It will definitely derail the force from the new path.”

For the success of the new system, according to him, police needed officers like Lahore DPO Javed Noor who understood it thoroughly.

Right now, the officer said, Mr Noor was facing problems in implementing the merit policy. “What do you think about the press turning hostile to him,” he asked and claimed that some mediamen “who mattered were not happy with the outgoing DPO because he was not ready to extend them favours.”

The political interference would do nothing but ruin the merit policy and reform agenda in the police initiated to some extent by the Musharraf regime, another senior officer said.

“Undue postings and transfers, change of investigation of cases from one officer to another, suspension of inquiries against police officers are some of the areas mostly interfered with by the politicians,” the officer said.

“People here are not used to go with the merit policy as they always expect undue favours,” he said.