LAHORE: The City Police Officer (CPO) of Multan has been made to work under a newly-appointed junior Regional Police Officer (RPO) for the last one month or so as the chief minister is yet to pick a `suitable’ candidate out of a three-member panel she interviewed for the purpose on March 12.

As per reports, the panel of three officers sent by Inspector General of Police Abdul Kareem comprised Hassan Mushtaq Sukhera, Asad Sarfraz and Imran Kishwar. After the interview, the CM had asked the IGP to wait for her decision.

An official privy to the development said the process of making appointment of new CPO of the largest city of the South Punjab was initiated a few days after the posting of new RPO Usman Akram Gondal, a DIG ranked police officer.

He said that current CPO Sadiq Dogar and Mr Akram Gondal were from the same 30th Common.

As Mr Dogar was senior to his batchmate in inter-seniority and was serving as the CPO Multan for the last 27 months, the IGP took an ultimate decision to replace him with a new officer.

During his tenure, Multan secured first and second positions among other districts of Punjab in bringing the crime rate down. It was reflected in the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) meant to evaluate the performance of the regional and district police officers of the province.

The official said the government had decided to change the police regime of the Multan region and replaced the long-serving RPO Sohail Chaudhry with Usman Akram Gondal who earlier was serving in the Counter Terrorism Department Punjab.

Mr Chaudhry served as RPO of Multan region for 36 consecutive months, he said, adding that the replacement of the CPO, however, brought the position in-question to the limelight when the posting of a new officer in this respect got stuck in the CM secretariat.

The situation has also put the new candidates in a state of confusion as they were made to wait for the final decision of the CM.

Published in Dawn, April 14th, 2026