LAHORE, Feb 13: Deputy inspectors general (DIGs) Muhammad Rai Tahir of operations and Chaudhry Shafique Ahmad of investigations got promotion on Wednesday from the rank of senior superintendent of police (SSP) to the DIG.Both DIGs (operations) and (investigation) were earlier discharging duty on own pay and scale.
The officers were promoted along with 13 others in Punjab by a Central Selection Board which met in Islamabad to consider cases for promotion from the rank of the DIG to the additional IG (BS-21) and the SSP to the DIG (BS-20).
Mr Ahmad belongs to the 20th Common and Mr Rai the 21st Common.The federal government also approved promotions to the DIG rank of SSPs Abdul Razzaque Cheema, Shahzad Sultan, Osama Mumtaz, Zaeem Iqbal Sheikh, Maqsoodul Hassan, Salman Chaudhry, Fiaz Ahmad Dev, Zulfiqar Hameed, Ghulam Mehmood Dogar and Dr Usman Anwer. They are from 20th to 23rd common.
Similarly, DIGs from Punjab- Zulfiqar Ahmad Cheema, Syed Muhammad Abid Qadri and Sohail Khan -- have also got promotion to the additional IG. They are from 11th to 13th common.
After the promotion of two DIGs, the capital city district police will now have four DIGs, including the capital city police officer (CCPO).
DIG Amjad Javed Saleemi has been posted the CCPO despite the fact that the post is for the additional IG as per the Police Order of 2002. Another DIG is Ahmad Mubarik Ahmad who is in charge of the Security Division.
After DIG Cheema was promoted to the rank of additional IG, the Punjab police will now have two regional police officers (RPOs) as additional IGs out of nine Punjab regions. Rawalpindi RPO Captain (retired) Muhammad Zubair is an additional IG.
Similarly, SSP Abdul Razzaque Cheema being a DIG will be the second CPO in Punjab after Rawalpindi CPO Azhar Hameed Khokhar as the post is of DIG rank.
Sources in the Punjab government say though the chief minister prefers junior police officers at senior posts, four recently promoted officers -- Mr Cheema, Mr Rai, Mr Ahmad, and Mr Razzaque Cheema -- who are working on senior positions would likely to continue on the same posts after promotions.
They say the PML-N-led government always opposed the Police Order of 2002, the recent promotions would now provide the opportunity to the officers to work as per its spirit. — MUHAMMAD FAISAL ALI