Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar has removed Lahore police chief Umar Sheikh from his post.
Ghulam Mehmood Dogar, who was serving as DIG, Technical Procurement, CPO, Punjab, will be the new Capital City Police Officer (CCPO).
Whereas, the notification issued by the government said that Umar Sheikh will be “posted as Deputy Inspector General of Police/Deputy Commandant of Punjab Constabulary, Farooqabad, against a vacant post”.
Sheikh was posted as the Lahore police chief in September. Since then he has been involved in a number of controversies.
Soon after his posting, he allegedly told his subordinates that on any sensitive issue, the Lahore police must seek his permission even if they receive directions from the Central Police Office (CPO).
This had irked IGP Shoaib Dastgir, who refused to work as the IG till the removal of Sheikh. However, the government removed the IG following a standoff between the two.
Sheikh had also blamed the rape survivor in the motorway rape case. The CCPO had said rape survivor should have been more careful and taken a safer route to avoid the rapists.
“I am shocked… you are a mother of three and the only driver late at night… [she] should have taken the GT [Grand Trunk] Road instead, which is densely populated,” he had said while speaking to Dunya News.
Sheikh went had further said that the woman should “at least have checked her fuel before taking the motorway”.
Recently, CCPO Sheikh was in the crosshairs of the Lahore High Court that had sought record of the CCPO’s interviews after he criticised the courts for freeing criminals.
Reacting to the statement of the CCPO Shaikh in which he said the criminals detained by the police were given bail by the courts, the chief justice had said the suspects are granted bail in line with the constitution.
He had said such statements by CCPO Shaikh were akin to committing contempt of court and asked the Punjab advocate general to give details of his interviews in 15 days.
