LAHORE: Considering recommendations of Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar for a reshuffle in Punjab bureaucracy, the federal cabinet on Tuesday replaced Punjab Inspector General of Police (IGP) Inam Ghani with Punjab Safe Cities Authority (PSCA) Managing Director Rao Sardar Ali Khan as the new provincial police chief.

He is the seventh appointment of the Punjab IGP by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government in its three-year tenure. It may be mentioned that Ghani was appointed in September last year after former IGP Shoaib Dastgir had refused to work with then Lahore Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Umer Sheikh, who allegedly passed indecent remarks against Dastgir and also misbehaved with a number of police officers on multiple occasions.

The farewell ceremony in the honour of outgoing IGP Inam Ghani was held at the Central Police Office (CPO) on Tuesday.

Speaking on the occasion, Ghani said as the Punjab police chief, his mission was eradicating crimes and bringing further improvements to public service delivery mechanism besides better welfare of the subordinates and effective use of information technology in policing. “I am happy that the new chief of the Punjab police, Sardar Ali Khan, is also a very professional, capable and hardworking officer. He said that departmental promotions and transfers were a part of their career and as civil servants they should always be ready for it.

Rao Sardar hails from Lodhran district of Punjab. He had joined the police service in 1990 as an ASP and belongs to the 18th common. He holds MBBS, MA (Management Information Systems, HRM) degrees.

At the start of his career, Rao served as ASP UT Quetta, FC Banu and SDPO Qaid Abad and Quetta. After promotion to the rank of SP, he served as SP Faisalabad, Bahawalpur, Sargodha, Rahim Yar Khan, Special Branch, Chakwal and Mianwali. After serving as AIG Development and AIG Logistics, Rao was moved to the Establishment Division Islamabad.

Later after getting promotion to the post of DIG, he served as CPO Faisalabad, DIG Operations Lahore, RPO Sargodha and RPO Bahawalpur. He also served in the Intelligence Bureau (IB) for more than five years. After his promotion to the post of Additional IG, he was posted as AIG Welfare and Finance while he also held the additional charge of the post of AIG Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) Punjab.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021