“Due to personal reasons, it is not possible for me to continue on my current assignments,” he wrote to the Establishment Division.

“It is, therefore, requested that my services may kindly be withdrawn with immediate effect from Government of the Punjab and placed at the disposal of the Federal Government,” the IG wrote.

The development comes a day after Moonis Elahi met Imran Khan in the hospital, where the PTI chief is recovering from injuries sustained in an assassination attempt on Thursday.

News reports had suggested that the two leaders had agreed that the IG Punjab should be removed, with one possible way being a forced vacation.

The issue seemingly causing a conflict between the provincial government and the police chief is the failure to register the FIR of the attack on Imran Khan’s long march in Wazirabad, even though almost three days have passed since the incident.

Meanwhile, a police representative also expressed disappointment over a statement by PTI leader Shah Mahmood Qureshi, in which he had attacked the failure of the IG to get an FIR registered.

“If you can not even get an FIR registered, then you should leave,” Qureshi had told a charged crowd in Lahore’s Liberty Chowk on Saturday, adding that the IG’s uniform be damned.

“Attacking a uniform worn by martyrs is regrettable,“the police statement said. It added that the caution being exercised by the police due to the sensitivity of the matter is hardly a matter of surprise.

The statement also said that similar caution had also been exercised in the past, even in cases where members of the PTI had been accused.

“Punjab police remains committed to fulfilling its duties above and beyond the interests of any party or group,” the statement said. “We hope the government will take notice of the derogatory remarks against our uniform.”