LAHORE: A week-long deadlock between Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Parvez Elahi and Inspector General of Police Faisal Shahkar on the transfers/postings issue ended with a positive development when the CM interviewed a panel of 12 officers recommended by the IG office.

In a related development, the IG office also proposed for the first time the names of three senior lady police officers for their appointment as district police officers (DPOs). Women officers are rarely given a chance to head the district police because of the male-dominated Punjab police.

An official said the IG office and the CM secretariat had been in a conflict for the last one week over 90pc of political appointments in the Punjab police by the provincial government, giving no weightage to the Central Police Office (CPO) despite being a major stakeholder. The IGP offered resistance, giving a clear message to the Punjab government that his command in the police community had weakened and he would prefer to leave the office instead of compromising on his right to transfers/postings in his department.

The official said the deadlock had ended after both sides resolved the differences and Thursday’s development was being taken as a positive sign.

“On Thursday, IGP Faisal Shahkar and Chief Minister Parvez Elahi interviewed 12 police officers to consider them for appointment for RPO and DPO slots,” the official said. The panel of police officers was recommended by the IGP, he said, adding that their names were discussed for the RPO DG Khan and DPOs of Layyah, Narowal and Okara districts.

In the summary, Mr Shahkar had recommended three names of officers against each panel. The police officers interviewed for RPO DG Khan were DIGs Khurram Ali Shah, Nasir Satti and Imran Arshad. Similarly, the SSPs and SPs who appeared for interview for the DPO slots were Amara Athar, Mohammad Faisal, Shaista Nadeem, Syed Husnain Haider, retired Capt Wahid Mahmood, Syed Karar Hussain, Mohammad Furqan Bilal, Shazia Sarwar and Mansoor Qamar.

The official said the nominations of the lady police officers constituted nearly 35pc of the total recommendations under the new policy of the IGP to give maximum representation to the women police officers. He said Mr Shahkar had faced resistance by some police officers when he held a series of meetings to discuss increase in the women representation in the police.

Recently, the IGP had made for the first time two women police officers members of the police executive board, the highest forum of the Punjab police which had not been represented by the lady police officers in the past. He had also issued an order to all the regional and district police officers to make appointments of the lady police officers from the rank.

In the notification in this respect, the IGP had directed to accommodate the lady police officers on the committees, for field postings and other forums from constable to the SP.

The appointment of six lady police officials as in-charge investigation at Lahore’s police stations was also continuity of the policy to encourage the women staff, he said.

As for the political appointments, he said, the police chief had rejected the name of a police officer who used his ‘political influence’ for his appointment as DPO Layyah. He said the police officer had engaged the elite political figures of all the political parties of Layyah district to get himself appointed as DPO but the IGP turned down the requests.

Published in Dawn, September 9th, 2022