Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Mahmood Khan has expressed his reservations about the performance of the province’s inspector general of police (IGP), reported 24NewsHD TV channel on Sunday.
The chief minister was particularly concerned about IGP Sanaullah Abbasi’s unlimited powers. Mahmood Khan also showed no-confidence in the transfers and postings the IGP ordered.
The KP chief minister has conveyed his reservations about the police chief to Prime Minister Imran Khan.
About a year ago, the federal government had transferred the then Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police chief, Dr Mohammad Naeem Khan, and replaced him with Sanaullah Abbasi.
Dr Naeem’s transfer came amid rumours doing the rounds at that time and the visit of Prime Minister Imran Khan to the provincial capital, wherein he met the cabinet members, the chief secretary and the police chief.
An establishment division notification said Sanaullah Abbasi, a BS-21 officer of Police Service of Pakistan and currently serving as the Gilgit-Baltistan police chief, under the Kashmir affairs and GB division, had been transferred and posted Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police chief, in his own pay and scale.
Dr Naeem was the third KP police chief to have been transferred under the Mahmood Khan administration.
Earlier, in September 2019, the federal government had transferred Mohammad Tahir and appointed Salahuddin Khan Mehsud as the police chief.
However, Mr Mehsud’s second stint as KP police chief lasted for only a couple of months as the simmering dispute between the police department and bureaucracy over extension of the provincial police to the merged districts cost the then chief secretary and the IG their jobs.
Dr Naeem was appointed KP police chief on Feb 8, 2019 following the removal of Mr Mehsud.
The outgoing police chief oversaw the thorny issues of extension of the police jurisdiction to the merged districts and absorption of Khasadar and Levies personnel in the police department.