Many police officers to lose backdated seniority

Islamabad
After the Supreme Court's landmark judgment declaring all backdated seniorities given to police officers null and void, the top cop of Islamabad Police, the Regional Police Officer Rawalpindi, at least a dozen police officers from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, over seventy officers of Sindh police and many more would either be demoted to their original ranks or will be placed lower in the seniority list of their current ranks.
Documents available with The News reveal that Inspector General of Islamabad Police Tahir Alam was inducted in the Police Service of Pakistan on December 27, 2004 while he was given backdated seniority with effect from 10-05-2003, which made him senior to the officers under whose command he had served. Well-placed sources told The News that after the recent SC judgment, Tahir Alam will be demoted to grade-19 because officers inducted in PSP before him are still in grade-19.
RPO Rawalpindi Akhtar Umar Hayat Lalika was inducted in PSP on January 18, 2005 but was given backdated seniority from 07-05-2000, documents reveal. He too will be reverted to his original rank in the wake of SC judgment. Interestingly the documents also reveal that Mr Lalika has also been nominated for 102nd National Management Course by the Establishment Division while the revised and updated seniority list after the SC judgment will place him way down in the columns.
Another Police officer, Mr Ahmad Mukhtar Khan, currently serving in the Anti-Narcotics Force, was inducted in PSP on October 20, 2006 and was given backdated seniority from 12-04-2000. He too has been nominated by the Establishment Division for 102nd NMC. When the seniority lists will be revised as ordered by the SC, Mr Mukhtar will move further down in the list.
The judgment clearly mentions that the antedate seniority given by Establishment Division to 12 officers inducted in PSP from KP police on 11-12-2007 is devoid of any legal status. These officers include Abdul Waheed Khan, Sajid Ali, Muhammad Idrees, Abdullah Khan, Khurshid Khan, Iftikhar Khan, Muhammad Noorani Khan, Raja Naseer Ahmad, Gul Said Khan, Muhammad Zafar Ali, Muhammad Yamin and Zafarullah Khan. They were initially given backdated seniority in the PSP with effect from 1997. Some of the officers of KP are still functioning as DIGs in KP however they will be reverted to their original ranks after the SC judgment.
There is a long list of officers in Sindh Police who have been given backdated seniority of which many are posted as DIGs and District Police Officers.
The backdated seniority has been a stigma on the face of PSP as officers were given seniority in back dates which made them seniors to the officers under whose command they have served. The landmark Supreme Court judgment handed by Chief Justice of Pakistan has stopped all sorts of antedate seniorities.
There are three lots of officers, encadred in the PSP from Pakistan Army, through CSS exam and 40 percent quota has been reserved for the rankers. The dilemma has been that the rankers would claim backdated seniority i.e. not from the date of induction in PSP but from the date a seat fell vacant in the respective province, which would make them senior to the officers under whose command they have worked. Such manipulation of rules has ruined the structure of PSP. The judgment has come as a breath of fresh air for the officers of PSP who have been victim of backdated seniorities given to rankers.
The judgment says, "It would be against all notions of natural justice that persons who join service in a grade first should be relegated to a junior position as against those who join later, merely because they fill vacancies which were deemed to be reserved for them."