LAHORE, May 30: In what appears to be a violation of the orders of the country’s highest court of law, the Punjab government has not yet relieved seven ‘influential’ PSP officers for Balochistan rather made five other officers ‘scapegoat’, Dawn has reliably learnt.

The Central Police Office on Monday last directed five officers -- SSPs Kamran Khan and Mehboob Rasheed Mian and SPs Ali Javed Anwer Malik, Mansoorul Haq Rana and Malik Awais -- to relinquish their charge and report to the Establishment Division for their further postings.

But the officers have yet to receive any orders from the ED and are continuing with duty in Punjab.

However, two others named SSPs Husain Habib Imtiaz and Tayyab Hafeez Cheema, who were also included in the second list sent by the Punjab government to the ED, have not been relieved because of reasons well known to the provincial authorities.

Interestingly, none of the seven officers are required by the ED in its original notification seeking the provincial government to relieve officers for their postings in Balochistan. Eight other officers (who were included in the original notification)- SSPs Dr Rizwan, Dr Akhtar Abbas, Kamran Yousaf Malik, Gohar Mushtaq Bhutta, Nasir Mukhtar Rajput, Muhammad Kashif, Dar Ali Khattak and Ali Mohsin Shah- are not relieved by the provincial government despite strict orders issued by the Chief Justice of Pakistan a few days ago.

The provincial government, however, has relieved three PSP officers-Ahmad Nasir Aziz Virk, Munir Masood Marth (for Sindh) and Ahmad Arslan Malik- and three ranker officers including SSP Asif Zafar Cheema for Balochistan as per the ED’s notification.

The CJP, during a law and order hearing in Quetta a few days ago, took notice of the situation and directed the ED joint secretary to get the orders implemented and required officers must report to Balochistan.

The secretary told the court that the provinces were not relieving required officers and giving alternative names upon which the CJP had directed to stop salaries of those officers who were violating the court’s decision and not reporting to Balochistan.

Sources at the Chief Minister's Secretariat told this reporter that the Punjab government with mutual consent of the chief minister as well as IGP had initially sent first replacement list of 10 officers a few weeks ago, asking the ED to withdraw services of Munir Ahmad Zia Rao, Ahmad Jamalur Rehman, Nasir Mukhtar Rajput, Syed Muhammad Amin Bokahri, Athar Waheed, Asmatullah Junejo, Sheraz Nisar, Waheedur Rehman, Irfanullah Khan and Muhammad Anwer Khaitran from Punjab.

However succumbing to pressure reportedly exerted by those officers, the CM Secretariat issued a new list of seven officers against its first list.

Sources said the ED received the new list of seven officers from Punjab on May 22, but names were kept confidential to avoid further pressure.

Officers, who got information about the notification a few days later, were verbally informed by the provincial government to immediately relinquish the charge even when they have not yet received any intimation from the ED regarding their transfers.

Sources said out of those seven officers, the ED issued notification of five officers on May 28 and later name of Mansoorul Haq Rana was dropped on 29th.

They said SSP Imran Ahmed, who had already served in Sindh (Punjab domicile) for six years, was notified for Balochistan in place of Mr Rana. His name was inserted in the list, making him a `scapegoat.’

Sources further said the remaining four officers had been relieved from Punjab who had no influence to get their transfers cancelled.

It is pertinent to mention that the five newly-picked officers had been relieved from Punjab with mutual consent of the ED and the Punjab government at a time when CJP Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry is abroad.

One of the five officers transferred from Punjab, speaking to this reporter, said he had yet to receive the written orders of his transfer and would not relieve the charge until he got orders from ED.

He said it was clear violation of court orders and discrimination in choosing officers for Balochistan.

Another police official said a good number of officers, who joined police service on Balochistan domicile and were currently serving in Punjab for several years, were not usually relieved for Balochistan despite the fact that those officers were bound to serve their provinces after serving five years in other provinces. He said a number of PSP officials (Punjab domicile) never served outside of their province, a violation of rotation policy.

He said according to the federal government’s policy, each PSP officer was required to serve Balochistan for some period, but a majority of officers either got their transfers stopped or a minority of them served in field offices for short period of time.