ISLAMABAD - The federal government has so far not entertained the Balochistan police’s request to post senior police officers in the province before the upcoming general elections, The Nation has learnt.
The Balochistan government is facing shortage of police officers and Inspector General Police Balochistan has requested the Establishment Division to fulfill the shortage of officers before elections due to poor security situation of the country.
The federal government had decided to transfer 16 senior police officers to Balochistan before general election but it could not do it. The Establishment Division had also sent a list of 16 officers to the Election Commission of Pakistan seeking approval to relocate them.
IG police Balochsitan Mohsin Hassan Butt told The Nation: “Balochistan police are facing a shortage of 30 plus officers in grades 18 and 19 and he has informed the federal government about the situation”.
Senior officials of Establishment Division informed that IG Balochistan Police had written to the Establishment Division to transfer police officers to Balochistan before of elections to fill the vacuum of senior officers and maintain the law and order during the polls.
The Establishment Division letter which he wrote to ECP says: “ the undersigned is directed to refer to the subject cited above and to state that Establishment Division intends to post 16 PSP/BS-19 officers to Government of Balochistan in terms of Rotation Policy enabling the government to meet the shortage of officers during General Election 2018.”
The 16 officers including Muhammaz Azhar Akram, Pervaiz Khan Umrani, Muhammad Abid Khan, Captain (Retd) Muhammad Shuaib, Dr Mazhar-ul-Haq Kakkhail, Yaseen Farooq Sheikh, Kamran Younis Malik, Akbar Nasir Khan, Muhammad Rizwan, Muhammad Jamal-ur-Rehman, Fida Hussain Mastoi, Imran Ahmar, Khurram Shahzad Haider, Muhammad Ahsan Younis and Waqar-ud-Din Syed are part of Establishment Division’s list.
The letter further says, “in view of above, the Establishment Division of Pakistan is requested to convey its concurrence for posting the above officers to Government of Balochistan. In terms of Section 230 of Election Act, 2017.”
The transfer orders of these officers would be issued with the approval of ECP, however, the Establishment Division had posted a garde-21 office of Police Service of Pakistan group, Mohsin Hassan Butt as new IGP Balochistan with the approval of Federal Cabinet.