Six in race for Punjab IGP’s post

ISLAMABAD: At least six senior police officers are being considered to head the Punjab Police, a 200,000-strong force second only to the Pakistan Army with Rs60 billion budget, as the present Inspector General of Police (IGP) retires on Wednesday.

“Any officer to be nominated as Punjab IGP is required to essentially have certain qualifications: he should have more than a year’s service; should have sufficient exposure and experience of serving in Punjab and should be upright and have credibility,” a senior official told The News.

Listing the names under consideration for the post, he said Javed Iqbal, currently working as secretary Narcotics Control Division, is the senior officer of the Police Service of Pakistan (PSP).

Javed Iqbal has served in Punjab and meets the criteria specified by the Punjab government for the post.

Another officer figuring in the list is Aftab Sultan, presently working as Commandant National Police Academy. He served as additional IG Finance and Welfare Punjab for several years before his promotion to grade-22 and selection as the Director General Intelligence Bureau (DGIB) by the present government.

Sultan, known for his impeccable integrity, earned distinction when he prepared a voluminous report on the Bank of Punjab swindle on the orders of the Supreme Court. After exhaustive work, his small team prepared 11200-word findings into the scandal and submitted it to the court in June 2011.

It said an unprecedented staggering amount of over Rs143 billion was either swindled in the BoP or turned into non-performing loans or was dishonestly borrowed by its directors or lost by the then Punjab government when Hamesh Khan called the shots as president of the bank. It dubbed the swindle as the biggest in Pakistan’s history in which the BoP was virtually deprived of more than Rs11 billion in advances and mark-up by the Haris Steel alone. The BoP directors too obtained credit and other facilities in defiance of the statutory regulations of the BoP to the tune of approximately Rs20 billion. But this is not the whole story as the BoP’s cupboard somehow is full of skeletons.

However, before his appointment as DGIB he was once considered for the post of IGP Punjab, but was not appointed, as the provincial government did not then find him suitable. However, he is now the leading candidate for the top office.

Sultan was removed in July as DGIB. Way back in April 2002, he relinquished the charge of Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Sargodha saying he can’t be part of the hoax called public referendum of Pervez Musharraf. He then wrote to his IGP that he would not serve as Sargodha DIG when the referendum fraud was being committed. The Punjab IGP instantly obliged and sidelined him.

Apart from these senior most police officers, Qalb-e-Abbas, who is in grade-21, is also being considered for the berth.

Long time ago, he served as IGP Islamabad. He carries good repute.

Presently, he is serving as additional IG, Finance and Welfare, Punjab. Previously, the Shahbaz Sharif government had made him Commandant Elite Force.

Of the same grade is Khan Baig, who is also rated as a good officer and upright man but less assertive.

Then, there are two other officers, Nasir Durrani and Mushtaq Sukhera, who could turn out to be “dark horses”. But they have good standing and character.

However, the official said that if any of these relatively junior officers was appointed as Punjab IGP, nearly half a dozen additional IGs, who are senior to them, would have to go.

Apart from leading a huge force and having a massive budget at his disposal and immense clout, the Punjab IGP has under his command some eleven additional IGs and nine ranges headed by the regional police officers.

The official said that the past practice was that the federal government always notified as the Punjab IGP the officer selected by the provincial administration. No panel of three officers was ever sent for the purpose, and this also happens in all the three provinces.

He said besides these officers, the rest of nearly a dozen officials do not come up to the criteria. Additionally, they also have around four months left in their service.

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