Superseding demoralises senior DSPs, inspectors of KP police

PESHAWAR: Superseding seniors and posting junior cops as acting superintendents of police (SPs) and deputy superintendents of police (DSPs) has demoralized a large number of cops in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police in recent years, a source told The News.
“Among the DSPs, many who are on top in the seniority list are still waiting for promotion while those beyond 100 on the roll have been posted as acting SPs since many months now. Among the inspectors, those on top were dropped while others not even in the top 200 on the seniority list have been promoted as DSPs in the last few years,” a source told The News.
The source added that on March 7, the deputy inspector general (DIG) Headquarters issued letter No 1951-55/SE.1 to all the additional inspectors general (Ad IGs), capital city police officer, regional police officers (RPOs) and heads of various wings of the police force, mentioning the names of 14 senior most DSPs to consider them if they had to post anyone as acting SP. These DSPs were on No 1, 2, 6, 10, 12, 13, 15, 18, 19, 22, 24, 27, 29 and 32 on the seniority list.
“However, last week another junior officer, on No 59 of the fresh seniority list and No 75 on the list issued in February, was made acting SP, without considering anyone from the list of 14 DSPs sent to all the concerned police bosses from the office of IGP,” a source told The News.
Despite being on an acting basis, the promoted officers enjoy all the perks, privileges and protocol of their senior grade. In some cases, their seniors have to report to them too.
The source added that some junior DSPs will take another three to four years to be promoted as SPs but they are already working as acting SPs for the last many years.
The same is the case with inspectors. “Even those who are not among the top 200 and even 250 have been serving as DSPs for many years. By the time they were posted acting DSPs, some were not even among the top 400 on the seniority list,” said the source.
The process has been going on for many years on the pretext of filling the posts that are vacant due to the shortage of the officers at the senior level.Many cops who were neither senior nor competent were promoted on acting basis in recent years for having backing from politicians or senior police officers.
Those who were obliged by senior police officers and politicians in the last many years by giving them shoulder promotion not only included DSPs and inspectors but hundreds of other cops down to the rank of constables.
In the last couple of years, the KP Police have posted 37 junior officers as SPs, ignoring over 100 of their seniors who have been waiting for promotion since long. These cops were promoted on the recommendations of the concerned RPOs or departmental heads.
“The seniority list of the DSPs issued in February shows those promoted as acting SPs are on 175, 134, 127, 107, 105, 99, 86, 83, 82, 78 on the roll. This was bound to demoralize those on number 6, 10, 13, 15, 18, 19, 22, 24, 27, 29, 32, 36, 39, 40, 42, 43, 43, 44 on the roll,” the source added.
Some senior police officers believe that majority of the DSPs and inspectors, who have not been promoted, were not competent enough.The ignored cops, however, argued that how come they reached the rank of DSP and inspectors if they were incompetent.
They added that many among those promoted as acting SPs and DSPs are the blue-eyed of the senior policemen, politicians or other influential people.Officers at the Central Police Office (CPO) said that the inspector general of police (IGP) has issued directives to promote only those DSPs as acting SPs who are among the top 100 on the seniority list.
“Similarly, instructions have been issued to promote from only those inspectors as acting DSPs who are among the top 150 on the seniority list,” said Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Headquarters, Mubarak Zeb.
The official argued that they were short of SPs and DSPs and that was the reason they had to appoint SPs and DSPs on the recommendation of the concerned regional police officer (RPO).The DIG Headquarters said that apart from seniority, they had to look for many other things to justify the fitness of the cops for the specific post.According to Mubarak Zeb, they were not getting enough number of officers in the senior grades from the federal government and this had resulted in the shortage.