Faisal Shahkar appointed new IG Punjab ahead of CM election

LAHORE: The Punjab government has appointed Faisal Shahkar as new provincial Inspector General (IG) shortly after Rao Sardar refused to continue serving ahead of Punjab chief minister (CM) election, ARY News reported on Friday.

According to the notifications issued by Establishment Division, Rao Sardar Ali Khan has been replaced with Faisal Shahkar. Rao Sardar has now been appointed as Pakistan Railways inspector general with immediate effect.

Meanwhile, Faisal Shahkar, previously serving as the Railways inspector general has now been transferred and posted as the provincial police chief with immediate effect.

The appointment came after top-ranking government officials — IG Punjab and Chief Secretary Kamran Afzal — refused to continue serving on their post. AD Khawaja, Faisal Shahkar and Inam Ghani were strong contenders for the IG Punjab post.

The newly-appointed police chief is a grade-22 officer and joined the Pakistan Police Service as the additional superintendent in 1988. He served as the additional inspector general at the Special Branch for almost three years.

Shahkar has also served in the United Nations’ special missions in Bosnia and Liberia among other countries.

CM Punjab election

A crucial session of the Punjab Assembly (PA) for the election of the provincial chief minister (CM) will be held today (Friday) at 4pm under the chairmanship of Deputy Speaker Dost Mazari.

According to details, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has a clear majority in the Punjab Assembly, with Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi now most likely to replace Hamza Shahbaz Sharif as the new chief minister of the province.

During the by-elections in Punjab, the PTI grabbed 15 of the total 20 seats while PML-N won four seats and the remaining one seat went to an independent candidate.

Before the by-polls, the PTI and PML-Q had already attained the strength of 173 (163 of PTI and 10 of PML-Q). Now, with 15 additional seats, this strength has reached 188 whereas the figure of the simple majority stands at 186.

Meanwhile, the coalition government has 179 members – PML-N with 164 members, PPP with seven, three independents and one member of the Pakistan Rah-e-Haq party.