It is a political tradition in Pakistan that whenever there is a change of government, be it in a province or in the federation, the first thing that happens is the transfer of police officers.
Ever since the Tehreek-e-Insaf took over the government in Punjab, police officers who were accused of having played a role in thwarting the long march of the Tehreek-e-Insaf on May 25 have been being selectively removed.Chief Minister Pervez Elahi was the first to change the police leadership of Lahore. CCPO Lahore Bilal Siddique Kamiana has been removed and Ghulam Mahmood Dogar has been appointed as Police Chief.
Similarly, DIG Operations Lahore Sohail Chaudhary was removed and transferred to Counter Terrorism Department.
Imran Khan's chief of staff Shehbaz Gul posted a picture of Sohail Chaudhary and tweeted that the way Sohail Chaudhary did illegal things is shameful. Tehreek-e-Insaf will not forget these steps and the law will take its course.
After this tweet, Sohail Chaudhary was removed from CTD and transferred to the province and his services were handed over to the federal government. Shahbaz Gul tweeted again with the notification that 'Now those who tortured women, children and lawyers will be held accountable. This is just the first step, now the law will take its course. Khan has not forgotten May 25 and will not forget it.
Not only Sohail Chaudhary, but also DPO Muzaffargarh Captain Retd. has been asked to do.
A senior Punjab Police officer told Urdu News on condition of anonymity that Tehreek-e-Insaf has prepared a list of 30 officers who they believe are responsible for stopping the May 25 long march.
He said that Chief Minister Chaudhry Parvez Elahi asked the new IG Faisal Shahkar to take disciplinary action against these officers, and the IG said that this way the morale of the force will be lowered. He had also convinced the Chief Minister not to deport Sohail Chaudhary, but later the situation changed. So far, 50 percent of the officers from the PTI list have been transferred while the remaining transfers have been stopped due to Muharram. However, it seems that the rest of the officers will also be removed after Muharram.
Tehreek-e-Insaf leader Chaudhry Shafqat Mehmood told Urdu News that "Police should not become a tool of political parties. We will make an example of those officers who tortured innocent people on May 25." We remember the face of each police officer who obeyed the orders of an illegal government and violated the law. This is a strong demand of our workers and we will not back down from it now.
On the other hand, the then Interior Minister of Punjab, Attullah Tarar, thinks that it is a dangerous behavior of Tehreek-e-Insaf to act against the police officers in this way. "I think the police did what they were told by the government of the day as per the policy and we stopped the miscreants from attacking the federation."He said that they did not take retaliatory actions against the leaders of Tehreek-i-Insaaf. If cases have been registered, they were registered for damage to government property, while now the government is with them, see how Nazir Chauhan and his sons have been tortured. It is also recorded in the cameras. It is a fascist party.
Talking about the recent upheaval in the police, former IG Punjab Khawaja Khalid Farooq said that the police is being politicized, which is not a correct trend.
"Exchanging or forming your own team is a normal thing, but targeting police officers for revenge or saying that such and such an officer belongs to such and such party or such and such an officer belongs to another party, then I think this attitude is not correct and should be reviewed." .'
According to him, "Police is a professional force and should work towards making it more professional."
Former IG Shaukat Javed also believes that campaigning on social media against police officers is not a valid practice.
"This is a disciplined force. If anyone has a complaint against any officer, there is a procedure within the system that should be followed."
Chief Minister Pervez Elahi has also constituted a committee headed by Dr. Yasmin Rashid which will look into the cases filed against the PTI workers.