LAHORE, Oct 2: In yet another violation of Police Order 2002 and prevailing precedents, Punjab police authorities have posted a very junior officer as Lahore SSP (Operations).

Earlier, the PML-N-led Punjab government had appointed a junior officer, who is brother of a PML-N MPA, as capital city police officer Lahore in violation of Police Order 2002.

The postings of junior officers on senior posts and presence of senior officials on junior posts have become so common in Punjab police that most of senior officers can be seen serving in the same capacity instead of getting themselves transferred or challenging the postings of their junior bosses.

Inspector General of Punjab Police Khan Baig on Wednesday posted SP Captain (retired) Jawad Qamar as SSP (Operations) against an existing vacancy without realising the fact that Lahore SP (Security) Abdul Ghaffar Qaisrani of 30th Common is senior to Mr Qamar who is from 32nd Common.

Interestingly, Lahore City SP (Investigation) Sarfraz Ahmad Virk also belongs to 32nd Common and he will work under Qamar’s command.

Mr Qamar is additional SP in rank while the post of SSP (Operations) is of BS-19. The promotion of the incumbent SSP will be due after four years.

Sources claimed that Mr Qamar had secured the recent position by virtue of his family clan involving three senior police officers -- CCPO Chaudhry Shafique, DIG (Investigation) Zulfiqar Hameed and SSP (Investigation) Abdul Rab Chaudhry. Qamar has ‘blessings’ of the son of a senior judge as well.

What happened recently in Karachi was a unique episode when five senior DIGs of Sindh police had challenged the posting of DIG Shahid Hayat as CCPO Karachi in Sindh High Court with a plea that a junior officer had been appointed on the post of Additional IG. But in Punjab, most of the regional police officers and CCPO Lahore were DIGs in the last and current tenures of Shahbaz government.

According to the record, RPOs of Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Multan and CCPO Lahore are DIGs while post of Rawalpindi RPO is lying vacant.

Sources privy to the transfers and postings moves told Dawn that police officers serving in Punjab hardly protested against consistent violation of chain of command and police order due to fear factor and to avoid wrath of political governments.

They said some specific groups in Punjab police had been prevailing upon the top police commander for choice postings of their subordinates and latest example was of Lahore police where an influential police group prevailed.

They said break in chain of command not only created frustration among police officers, but also demoralised them.

Sources said it also happened that senior officers made compromises due to certain reasons and continued working under their juniors, but some of them preferred transfers like a culture prevailed in the Armed Forces.

Meanwhile, the IGP also transferred and posted two police officers.

IGP Khan Baig, when contacted, justified the posting of Mr Qamar and argued that the Lahore SSP (Operations) and the SP (Security) both assisted the DIG (Operations) and their working was independent.

He said the SSP (Operations) usually assisted the DIG in operational matters and specific assignments while the SP (Security) dealt in overall security matters.

The IG further said Mr Virk was answerable to the DIG (Investigation) and he had nothing to with the SSP (Operations). He parried a question about frustration among ‘affected’ officers due to the culture prevailing in the Punjab police.

He, however, said he saw no violation in postings of police officers of same batch working under or above each other due to different factors including shortage of officers.

According to a handout, Zulfiqar Ali, DSP (Telecommunication Branch), on his promotion to BS-18 on regular basis in his cadre, was transferred and posted as additional SP Telecommunications Punjab (Lahore) against an existing vacancy while Mrs Nasim Chaudhry, SP Punjab Highways Patrol (Gujranawala) was transferred and directed to report to the Central Police Office, Punjab.