LAHORE   - The Punjab government on Thursday reshuffled several senior police officers including Lahore Capital City Police Officer (CCPO). 

The move comes in the backdrop of deadly clashes between police and the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan. The Lahore police had failed to stop the long march of the banned outfit as it started journey towards the federal capital a couple ago weeks ago.

Prime Minister Imran Khan and Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar had also expressed annoyance over the failure of the Lahore police to prevent the religious party workers from leaving the provincial capital.

According to a notification issued on Thursday, Additional Inspector General of Police Fayyaz Ahmed Dev was posted as new Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) in Lahore while Ghulam Mehmood Dogar was removed and transferred to the Central Police Office. .

At least 12 senior police officers who were responsible for chalking out security plan and halting the protest rally of TLP are among those shown the door on Thursday. Lahore DIG (Operations) Lahore Sohail Chaudhry and DIG (investigations) Shariq Jamal are also among the officers who were transferred and asked to report to the Services and General Administration Department of the Punjab government.

DIG Headquarters Shahzad Sultan was transferred and posted as DIG investigations. Rawalpindi CCPO Ahsan Younis was posted as DIG Operations in Lahore.

Reportedly, the chief minister office had pointed out the negligence of top brass Lahore police at three points – letting the protesters gather, failure to prevent the rally from leaving Lahore and poor intelligence gathering regarding the protesters’ plan.

Following the signing of a secret agreement between the government and the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), the Punjab government has sent its recommendations to the federal government to lift ban on the banned religious outfit, it has been learnt reliably.

Sources in the Punjab government said that the mandatory approval of the provincial cabinet in this regard has also been sought through circulation of a summary. Though the Punjab cabinet was also scheduled to meet on Thursday to deliberate on the TLP issue, but the meeting was deferred to some other day.  The sources further said that a final decision to lift the ban on TLP will be taken by the federal cabinet in the next couple of days.

According to a private news channel, Chief Minister Punjab of Usman Buzdar Thursday granted the initial approval to the summary sent to him for the revocation of the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP)’s proscribed status.

The summary was sent to him by the Punjab home department on Thursday. After granting preliminary approval to the summary, the CM has now sent it to the Federal Cabinet to take a final decision regarding the matter through circulation.