Muhammad Aamir Zulfiqar Khan appointed Islamabad IGP

ISLAMABAD: The Establishment Division on Friday issued a notification posting Muhammad Aamir Zulfiqar Khan, a BPS-21 officer of Police Services of Pakistan (PSP) as Islamabad inspector general of police (IGP) under Interior Division thus effectively replacing Jan Muhammad who relinquished his charge earlier.

Zulfiqar was posted as the officer in special duty in Establishment Division and has previously served as Motorway Police IG along with Punjab IG operations, DIG operations, DIG CTD, Multan RPO, Multan CPO, Lahore Special Branch SSP, Lahore SSP operations among other postings.

On Monday, the SC was told that former Islamabad IGP Jan Muhammad Khan was transferred on the verbal orders of Prime Minister Imran Khan.

Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar took notice of the transfer of the Islamabad IGP and suspended the notification of transfer during Monday’s hearing.

During the course of the hearing, the interior secretary and the attorney general (AG) were directed by the apex court to explain the reasons behind the transfer.

“I have heard the transfer was done on some minister’s order. The interior secretary should inform us why he was transferred,” the top judge remarked. “We have also heard that IGP was removed because he refused to obey orders of a minister’s son,” the CJP added.

It is pertinent to mention that Islamabad Police is facing multiple challenges, including being perpetually understaffed for past many years due to the failure of the previous government to make new hirings and delays in the announcement of vacancies. As per documents available with Pakistan Today, at present more than 1,255 positions of constables alone lie vacant for past many years.

As reported by this paper, insufficient personnel are deployed in Counterterrorism Unit of Islamabad Police and the unit’s efficacy greatly suffers, putting a question on the preparedness of Counterterrorism Unit in face of any untoward disaster.

Furthermore, out of the total sanctioned strength, 7,887, at present 6,532 constables are serving in various formations, including traffic division, Special Branch, Operations Division, Logistics Division, Security Division, Counterterrorism force, and Crime Investigation Department. The lion’s share of these constables-2,028 constables in all- are working in the Security Division.