High level committee to decide fate of PPS in two weeks

PCS officers demand quota in senior grades; PSPs are opposed to new service, DSPs’ recruitment

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has tasked a high-level committee to decide the fate of the provincial police service (PPS) and the matter of direct recruitment of deputy superintendent of police (DSPs) in grade-17 within two weeks, a source told The News on Wednesday.

Chief Minister Pervez Khattak had approved the summary of creation of the PPS and direct recruitment of DSPs in May 2015. The summary was approved on the recommendation of a committee headed by senior member board of revenue and comprised of the secretaries of the home, law, finance and establishment departments.

However, the issue remained pending since the officers of the Police Service of Pakistan (PSP) as well as the federal authorities were opposed to the idea.  “Police officers recruited through the provincial civil service took up the issue in a meeting with the chief of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Imran Khan last week. Imran Khan and Pervez Khattak during the meeting constituted a committee, to be headed by Chief Secretary Amjad Ali Khan, to decide the matter on merit within two weeks,” a source told The News.

The source added that on the request of the police officials, Inspector General of Police (IGP) Nasir Khan Durrani was also included in the committee for being the relevant officer. Other members included the secretaries of the home and law departments.

The IGP in his letters to the government earlier had complained he was not taken into confidence while making such an important decision. All the other PSPs had also opposed the creation of the new service, saying the only provision of recruitment in grade-17 is ASP through the CSS and the matter of new service can only be decided by the Council of the Common Interests.

The PCS officers, however, said the PPS in fact is not a new service but it only gives a proper quota for the provincial officers in grade-18 and above and allows the province to directly recruit DSPs in grade-17 to fill a large number of vacant positions in senior grades. They have also asked for appearance before the committee to properly explain their case.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province had recruited DSPs in grade-17 on three different occasions in the past. Fourteen officers were recruited in 1988, 12 in 1990 while after a long gap nine DSPs were recruited in 2001. However, all these officers suffered because of not having any proper structure and promotion rules.

Some of the officers recruited by the province could only get one grade promotion to grade-18 even after serving for 25 long years. Others were placed too junior after encadred as PSPs. A few of the PCS officers had recently refused to be encadred in PSP, demanding separate quota for the officers of the province like that of Provincial Management Service and other PCS officers.

They argued that the recruitment of the DSPs is likely to help KP in overcoming the shortage of officers in senior grades in coming few years. Presently, KP is short of a large number of officers in grade-21, 20, 19, 18 and 17 and many junior officers had to be given shoulder promotion or acting charge to run the affairs.

“The Constitution gives authority to the provinces to establish services for the posts in connection with the affairs of the province as provided in Article 240 of the Constitution. Law and order is a provincial subject. The Police Department is responsible for watch and ward; therefore, it can make service rules. The government may, therefore, create Provincial Police Service,” reads the summary that was signed by the chief minister last year.

The structure of the PPS, according to the approved summary, will be either on the pattern of the provincial civil service, provincial management service or the Federal Investigation Agency.

A source told The News that after approval from the chief minister, the Establishment Division in Islamabad was approached for bifurcation of posts into PSP and Provincial Police Service (PPS).