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Thursday March 28, 2024

Cops angry at KP govt for being deprived of executive allowance

By Javed Aziz Khan
February 12, 2018

PESHAWAR: The officers of the police force are angry at the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government and some of them have even hinted at moving the court as they complained they were deprived of the 150 percent executive allowance approved for all cadres except policemen..

A source told The News that the civil and police bureaucracy have been engaged in a cold war for the last more than four years over different issues, more so due to their struggle to snatch powers from each other.

The tension has recently mounted after some fresh developments, particularly the exclusion of policemen from the executive allowance approved for officers of grade-17 and above.

“We are holding a meeting on the issue during the current week. Some of us are even want to move the court as the police officers were being deprived of their rights despite working round-the-clock for 24 hours and risking their lives in the field,” said an officer of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police while speaking to The News on behalf of many of his colleagues.

The officer added that there was resentment over the issue among police officials of the provincial cadres as well as those belonging to the Police Service of Pakistan.

“After the executive allowance, a grade-17 officer of another cadre is getting more salary than a grade-18 policeman. We are only getting a meagre amount as risk allowance and that too for genuinely risking our lives while fighting militants and criminals,” another police officer told The News. He added that there was resentment among all officers of the KP Police as they feel left out despite sacrificing their lives.

“There were a number of issues, including banning posting of police officers in some departments and misuse of police uniforms by others. This happened recently but the police force bosses couldn’t effectively take it up at the relevant forum. Excluding police officers from the executive allowance, however, has forced policemen to join hands and evolve a strategy on their own as their bosses failed to take up the issue at their level,” a source told The News.

The source said that the police officers from all over the province were to meet this week, likely on Tuesday, to evolve future line of action and express their concern as to why only police were excluded in the award of executive allowance.

The KP government had issued a notification a few days ago that the executive allowance will be applicable to the officers of the Pakistan Administrative Group, PCS and PMC except those

serving as OSD and posted at leave reserve posts. According to government data, there are 1,280 scheduled posts in the province and the number of posted officials is around 800.

“KP Police have longer working hours than other departments. It’s a 24-hour commitment, including the public holidays. Police officers run a higher risk of life. It can be substantiated by comparing the number of shaheeds and injured of police with other government officials whose salaries have already been raised or have been proposed for a raise,” a senior police official of the province told The News.

He added that if the barometer for better pay is performance, then KP Police claims to have performed better than all other government departments.

“Performance indicators like incidents of terrorism, crime and law & order situations have registered a steep decline during the last several years. Even the party ruling the province has been presenting the performance of police as their No 1 achievement in rallies and on media and social media,” said the senior official.

The official added that better pay for the police in KP will result in lower levels of corruption like the National Highways and Motorway Police. “Salaries equal to other departments will maintain morale and pride of the force as they will know that praise is not a mere lip-service meant for public consumption but they are liked and valued by the leadership,” said the official.

“The Inspector general of police has discussed the issue with chief minister and has requested for a rank-wise raise in pay of police officers to bring it on a par with officials of other cadres.

The chief minister has promised to look into the matter soon,” a spokesman for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police, Waqar Ahmad, told The News, when asked about the issue.He maintained that

policemen should also be given perks and privileges like other departments because they put their lives in danger every day.