LAHORE, May 24: Senior retired police officers or those transferred to other provinces or to the federal government are likely to lose their official residences in Lahore as the police department is going to adopt the recently amended house allotment policy of the Punjab government which aims at vacating huge bungalows from the old guards to accommodate the serving ones.

Sources in the police department confirmed on Tuesday that the new housing policy might be adopted in a week or so following which retired senior police officers or those transferred out of the province would be asked to vacate the department’s houses, mainly in Lahore, to accommodate serving officials.

They confirmed that as per an S&GAD notification, the allotment policy also applied to the police department because it was under the command of the provincial government. But, they said, the policy would be duly notified and then applied.

Sources said unlike the Punjab government, which maintains several colonies for its officials, the police department had limited accommodation facilities. Many retired police officials and those serving outside the province were still occupying a majority of available residences.

According to them, DIG Ghulam Haider is occupying a residence in Mughalpura even after two years of his retirement.Additional IG Abdul Majid is living in a house in Chuhng after six months of his retirement.

Additional IG Shamsul Hasan, who is also a retired official and has been re-employed by the Administrative Staff College, is occupying a house in Qurban Lines.

A former Lahore CCPO, Muhammad Parvez Rathore, who is now a Punjab Public Service Commission member, is living in a GOR-I house despite retirement from service.

Former FIA director-general Tariq Khosa is living in a Qurban Lines house after his retirement.

IG Railways Ibne Hasan is occupying a house in Qurban Lines even after over two years of his transfer from Punjab.

Under the Punjab government policy, an officer can retain an official residence for two months after his or her retirement. A six-month extension is granted by the competent authority upon request.

The government deducts five per cent of the basic pay as house rent of those serving officials who are allotted an official house.

Those who continue to occupy official residences without any entitlement after their retirement are charged 40 per cent of their last drawn basic pay as penal rent.

Those transferred out of Punjab are allowed to retain their official residences for two years or till the allotment of residences at the places of their duty (outside Punjab) equal to their rank.

The Punjab government has recently cancelled the allotment of top retired officials mainly belonging to District Management Group and Police Service of Pakistan. They are either serving as Punjab Public Service Commission members, or spending retired life.