LAHORE: In a move that brought both public and opposition parties' ire, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government on Tuesday removed its fifth Punjab Inspector General of Police (IGP), Shoaib Dastgir, during its two years in power, negating its pre-poll promises of introducing police reforms and granting autonomy to the police department, especially with regards to transfers and postings of senior officers.

According to a notification issued by the federal cabinet on the establishment division on Tuesday, the Prime Minister has appointed Inam Ghani, a BS-21 PSP officer, as the new provincial police chief after outgoing Shoaib Dastgir refused to work with the newly-appointed Lahore Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Umer Sheikh, who allegedly refrained his subordinates in his maiden meeting from obeying direct instructions of the IGP in "sensitive" matters and used inappropriate language against his commander.

Last week, the Punjab government immediately after the visit of Prime Minister Imran Khan to Lahore had removed CCPO Zulfiqar Hameed, the team leader of IGP Shoaib, without his consultation and appointed Umer Sheikh as the new metropolitan police chief despite his serious reservations.

The sources said the transfer of IGP Shoaib not only drew criticism from public and opposition parties but also ruffled the police circles as all senior command at a meeting held at the central police office (CPO) on Tuesday expressed their unanimous trust on Dastgir and castigated the government's move of not touching Umer Sheikh despite his alleged misconduct.

The sources said the situation turned worst when Additional Inspector General of Police Finance and Welfare Punjab Tariq Masood Yaseen refused to work under the command of newly-appointed Punjab IGP Inam Ghani contending that Ghani is junior to him in superiority. Masood has requested for his transfer at an appropriate position. "I have served all along with dignity, honour and within a certain set of principles", the AIG said in a letter addressed to the DIG headquarters.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020