LAHORE: A petition has been filed in the Lahore High Court (LHC) against the removal of Amjad Javed Saleemi as the Inspector General Punjab (IGP).
“The government has changed three IG Punjab within short span of 8 months”, the plea read.
The plaintiff stated that the tenure of the post was three years as per the Police Order 2002, but Saleemi was transferred after 6 months. The court has been pleaded to pass its judgment on the matter.
The federal government had removed Saleemi from his post on Monday and appointed Arif Nawaz in his stead.
According to informed sources, Amjad Javed Saleemi had drawn the government’s ire after he allegedly thwarted National Accountability Bureau (NAB) efforts to arrest Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Hamza Shehbaz.
Sources further added that in January, the PM had directed Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar to remove Saleemi for ‘mishandling’ the Sahiwal incident.
Earlier in October, the federal government had removed Punjab IG Mohammad Tahir Khan. In ‘protest’, the head of the Punjab Commission for Police Reforms, Nasir Khan Durrani also stepped down.
Arif Nawaz Khan has worked on the same position before. He was removed from the post before the last general elections. He was presently serving as secretary Narcotics Control Division.
Born in 1961, he joined the Police Service of Pakistan as ASP in 1986.
He was promoted to the post of SSP in 2000, DIG in 2009 and Additional IG in 2014. During this period, he served on important posts in Bahawalpur, Faisalabad, Special Branch, VVIP Security, DIG Training Punjab, Balochistan and Central Police Office Punjab Lahore.