Playing a tough guy, Sindh Police chief Kaleem Imam on Tuesday said a conspiracy was being hatched against him, but transferring him was “not so easy.”

Addressing the inaugural ceremony of Sindh Martyrs Monument in Karachi, the IGP dispelled the impression that the event was a farewell for him.

Maybe the provincial authorities wanted to save money to be spent on his farewell, he jeered.

But moments after his remarks about his transfer hit headlines, Imam ate his words, saying he was just kidding.

The IGP’s Iron Man posture was not taken well by the Sindh Government, which has been trying hard to get rid of him.

“[Instead of us], this was Imam who hatched conspiracies against the Sindh government,” Sindh Information Minister Saeed Ghani said in his response to the media sensation created by Imam.

"He [IGP] has been colluding with Opposition in Sindh and planting baseless news reports regarding cabinet members in the media," he claimed.

Transfer of police officers was a routine matter, he said, but in Sindh, Imam insists on staying despite the provincial cabinet providing detailed reasons to the Centre for his removal.

Rejecting reports of Sindh-Centre tussle over IGP’s transfer, Ghani said “we are expecting” his removal “today”.

But he complained that whenever the provincial government wanted to remove a senior police official, a problem was created out of it.

At the time this story was filed, Prime Minister Imran Khan was chairing a meeting of the federal cabinet in Islamabad.

According to sources, the transfer of IGP Sindh was one of the 15 items on the agenda.