by Asif Chaudhry in Dawn, October 24th, 2020
LAHORE: Senior police officers in the city are forced to take charge of additional posts due to alleged reluctance of officers to work with the CCPO.
Lahore SSP Headquarters Jamil Zafar holds additional charge of five other positions (in addition to his own assignment). He is holding the additional charge of the SSP Operations, SP Security, SP Anti-Riot, SP Dolphin and SP Mobile Squad. The positions of the SSP Operations, and the SP security, anti-riot and mobile squad have been vacant for the last couple of months.
Most of these slots fell vacant when DIG Umar Sheikh was posted the CCPO and he assumed charge of his new assignment on Sept 3.
Interestingly, Lahore anti-vehicle lifting squad (AVLS) SP Ijaz Rasheed is also holding the additional charge of Crime Investigation Agency (CIA) SP. The latter post fell vacant when Asim Iftikhar (heading CIA) was transferred after his clash with the CCPO.
Declaring the situation alarming, a police officer says the Lahore police are on the verge of collapse because of uncertainty and insecurity stoked by aggressive behaviour of the police chief.
“Lahore is a provincial capital having a population of over 12 million and the shortage of police officers has created a potential threat of any mishap,” he says.
The official says the police officers are avoiding posting in Lahore and some SPs had even got themselves transferred to other districts after they refused to work under the command of the CCPO. Few others were shuffled on the ‘recommendations’ of the CCPO who was not willing to see them in Lahore due to ‘unavoidable circumstances’, he says.
Referring to the transfer of the then Cantt Division SP Operations Furqan Bilal, he says, the officer was victimised when a minister tried to occupy a multi-million-rupee property of a woman in Cavalry Ground. As the men sent by the minister stormed the house, the SP dispatched the police force and thwarted the attempt to occupy the bungalow.
The official says the minister later threatened the Cantt SP operations that he would have him transferred from Lahore and he did the same while using his influence despite the fact that the matter was brought to the notice of the CCPO.
Similarly, the then SP operations of City Division Taswar Abbas was transferred when he was accused of having soft corner for the PML-N. There were reports that Mr Taswar had never been posted in Punjab during the PML-N tenure.
At present, three complaints are pending with police stations of Lahore for registration of cases against the CCPO.
The CCPO could not be contacted for his comments. His office staff said Umar Sheikh was on official leave for a couple of days.
IGP Inam Ghani said the major reason behind vacant positions in Lahore was the shortage of police officers all over the province.
“We are very choosy in selecting the best police officers for their postings in Lahore,” he said. www.dawn.com/news/1586703/dearth-of-officers-puts-a-strain-on-lahore-police
