LAHORE: Newly-appointed Caretaker Chief Minister Syed Mohsin Raza Naqvi has interviewed 12 police officers (BS-20) to give them new assignments in Punjab and the appointment orders are expected shortly.

The interviews were conducted for their appointments as new regional police officers (RPOs) and DIGs of Lahore investigation and operations police.

Punjab Inspector General Police Dr Usman Anwar, Chief Secretary Zahid Akhtar Zaman and Lahore Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Bilal Siddique Kamyana were also among the panel.

An official close to the development said that the caretaker CM called for interviews those police officers who were not ‘in good books’ of the previous government of PTI/PML-Q in Punjab.

Officials ‘not in good books’ of PTI govt were interviewed; appointments are subject to ECP approval

He said many of these police officers of DIG rank were either given sideline postings or repatriated from Punjab during the PTI tenure.

After assuming charge as CM Punjab, Syed Mohsin Naqvi sought lists of the police officers appointed by the PML-Q, particularly, those holding field postings like at regional level, he said.

The official source said the staff concerned briefed the CM that presently a majority of the RPOs including those of Sheikhupura, Rawalpindi, Gujranwala and Multan were having close links with the PTI/PML-Q.

The CM was further told that a few of them got postings on the ‘influence of a former chief of a powerful institution’ and some political stalwarts of the PML-N.

An RPO who was heading the region notorious for high crime rate near the provincial capital got himself posted for the second time in the same region using his connections of the above-mentioned channel while his performance remained questionable during his second tenure too.

The reports sought from the relevant agencies also endorsed the [particular] information, prompting the CM to replace them with the other police officers, the source said.

Consequent to the reports, the CM called the police officers for interview including former Lahore DIGs operation Dr Abid Raja, Sohail Chaudhry and Ehsan Younis.

Similarly, DIG Sajjad Manj from Intelligence Bureau, Athar Waheed from Federal Investigation Agency also appeared in the interviews.

Presently serving as DIG headquarter of the Punjab police Rai Babar, former DIG traffic police Punjab Sohail Sukhera, former additional IG elite police Punjab Afzal Mehmood Butt, Maqsoodul Hassan, Babar Alpa, present DG Khan RPO Khurram Shah and Shariq Kamal were also interviewed by the panel.

The appointments would be made on the approval by the Election Commission of Pakistan.

Published in Dawn, January 26th, 2023