KP chief secretary, IGP replaced

PESHAWAR: In a major development, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief secretary and inspector general of police were transferred on Saturday.

An official communiqué by the Establishment Division said Mohammad Salim Khan, a BS-21 officer of Pakistan Administrative Service presently serving the KP government, has been transferred and posted as Chief Secretary Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to replace Naveed Kamran Baloch, who was directed to report to the Establishment Division.

Mohammad Salim Khan belongs to a respectable family of Peshawar. He has worked on many important positions including secretary irrigation, secretary higher education, secretary power and energy, secretary planning and development, secretary IT, political agent Bajaur and Kurram tribal region, deputy commissioner Dir and trade minister in China. He is considered to be a competent officer. Meanwhile, Muhammad Naeem Khan, a BS-22 officer of Police Service of Pakistan presently serving as Inspector General of Police (IGP), Azad Jammu and Kashmir, under Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan Division, was transferred and posted as Provincial Police Officer, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He has replaced Salahuddin Mehsud.

It may be recalled that in early July 2018, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's caretaker Chief Minister Justice (retd) Dost Mohammad Khan had tried to remove the then IGP Mohammad Tahir and appoint Muhammad Naeem Khan as his replacement by taking the plea that security lapse had occurred under the IGP's charge when over 20 people, including ANP candidate Haroon Bilour, were killed in a suicide bombing in Peshawar. However, his proposal wasn't accepted. The caretaker chief minister had also tried unsuccessfully to remove Kamran Naveed Baloch as chief secretary, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and replace him with Ahmad Hanif Orakzai on the the same plea.

Finally though, both Kamran Naveed Baloch and Salahuddin Mahsud have been replaced with officers of choice of the PTI government in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Geo News adds: According to sources, the government wanted to introduce a parallel system between police and the Levies force and Mehsood and Baloch had opposed the system. “Mehsud and Baloch were of opinion that a parallel system between police and the Levies force was against the Supreme Court orders,” sources added.