Sindh at odds with Centre over police rotation policy

KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has taken notice of the pick-and-choose policy adopted by the Establishment Division in transferring and posting police officers after the publication of a story by The News. Shah has now instructed the provincial chief secretary to write to the Establishment Division for reviewing its decision.

Confronting the federal government’s Establishment Division for issuing transfer orders of six DIGs under a pick-and-choose policy, the Sindh government sources said that under the Rotation Policy, the first batch of seven top officers are supposed to be rotated followed by the next batch after a six months interval. The Establishment Division, according to provincial government sources, instead of going by the book went ahead with a preordained selective basis to transfer officers falling on serial numbers 3, 10, 13, 17 and 20. This manifests that certain officers were especially chosen for transfer from Sindh, rather than following the protocol of the rotation policy.

The officials said that the CM directed Chief Secretary Mumtaz Ali Shah to consult with Sindh Inspector General of Police Mushtaq Ahmed Mehar and write to the Establishment Division for reviewing its transfer orders.

On Sunday, The News had published a story revealing the Establishment Division notification of transfers and postings of Grade 20 Police officers on a pick-and-choose basis. As per the notifications, the transferred officers of Sindh included FIA’s DIG Munir Ahmed Shaikh whose services were placed at the disposal of the Punjab government. Besides the services of DIG Iqbal Dara, DIG Qamar-uz-Zaman and DIG Munir Shaikh were also placed at the disposal of the Punjab government. Furthermore, the services of DIG Fida Hussain Mastoi were placed at the disposal of the National Highways and Motorway Police under the Ministry of Communications. DIG Irfan Ali Baloch was similarly ordered to be transferred from Sindh and placed at the disposal of the Islamabad Capital Territory.