LAHORE, Jan 1: IGP Habibur Rehman relinquished the charge on his retirement on Tuesday.

The federal government could not immediately notify the appointment of new police chief.

Several police officers told Dawn that the federal as well as provincial governments remained indecisive about filling the top statuary slot. The provincial government should have at least given the acting charge to any senior police officer to run the affairs smoothly, they said.

They said it came to their knowledge that the provincial government had earlier decided to give the charge to any police officer but then changed its mind “to avoid blame of using top police officer for undue favours before the interim setup.”

Sources said Mr Habibur Rehman left the Central Police Office around 4pm after fulfilling all departmental requirements but there was no word about new name.

Mr Habibur Rehman, who was appointed IGP in February 2012, told the media at his office after the RPOs’ conference that he was not intimated by the government whom he should hand over the charge.

Sources said according to the SOP the government handed over the charge to the senior-most police officer (with rank of additional IG) on an acting basis until the regular appointment with the consensus of both governments.

They said the names of Punjab Additional IG Traffic Qalb-i-Abbas (the senior-most officer in the provincial police), Punjab Highway Patrol Additional IG Khan Baig, Punjab Welfare and Finance Additional IG Sarmad Saeed Khan and Additional IG Punjab Malik Khuda Bakhsh Awan were talk of the town for IGP’s charge on an acting basis.

A senior police officer said there was a ‘consensus’ on the name of National Police Academy Commandant Aftab Sultan but he remained reluctant to serve for the time being.

CONFERENCE: The outgoing IGP earlier said he had faced the ups and downs in life with courage. He said according to intelligence reports he remained on the hit list of the Taliban but he continued the mission with the grace of Allah Almighty.

Talking to reporters, the IGP said former Ogra chairman Touqeer Sadiq was hiding in Kathmandu, where a police team was present to arrest him.