LAHORE: A grade 21 police officer, Ali Aamir Malik, was transferred and posted four times in a month – of them, twice on Tuesday.

First, the Punjab government transferred Mr Malik, who is the Punjab Safe Cities Authority (PSCA) managing director, and posted him the Gujranwala regional police officer (RPO).

Gujranwala City Police Officer (CPO) Ashfaq holds additional charge of the RPO. The government through the notification withdrew his order and directed him to hold his original assignment (Gujranwala CPO) in the wake of Mr Ali’s posting as RPO.

After two hours, however, the government cancelled the previous transfer order of Malik and posted him again as PSCA MD. Another notification was issued the same day, directing Ashfaq Khan to hold additional charge of Gurjanwala RPO again.

On March 22, Mr Malik, who was Gujranwala RPO was transferred and placed at the disposal of the PSCA for his further appointment as its managing director on contract till June 9, 2019.

Accordingly, Ashfaq Khan was given additional charge of Gurjanwala RPO being the senior most available police officer in the region. Mr Ali was given assignment as Gujranwala RPO some three weeks before his first transfer which was made on March 22.

An official told Dawn such rapid transfers of the grade 21 police officer reflected the state of affairs of the Punjab government. He said the fourth transfer/posting of the police officer was a violation of the Police Order and the laid down policy of the Punjab government.

The Police Order states: “The term of the regional police officer, district police officer and the city police officer shall not be less than two years and not more than three years”.

Published in Dawn, April 4th, 2018