IGP refuses executive allowance until given to officers under his command

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police chief has refused the 150 percent executive allowance after the provincial government did not include the officers of the force among the bureaucrats who will be getting the huge increase in salaries, a source told The News on Monday.

The 150 percent executive allowance was approved a couple of weeks back for grade-17 and above officers of different cadres except the police force. Officers of police force are unhappy with the PTI government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa while some have even hinted at moving the court for ignoring them.

From the police force, only the Inspector general was included among those who will be getting the allowance. “Mahsud, however, wrote a letter to Chief Minister Pervez Khattak and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government in which he refused to accept the allowance until it is given to all his officers like other bureaucrats,” a source told The News. The letter was written to the chief minister last week.

The source said that the IGP in his letter to the chief minister recalled how 1,500 KP policemen sacrificed their lives and worked for 24 hours to restore peace in the province. The IGP told the chief minister that he finds himself unable to receive a personal benefit at the cost of his relationship with the force under his command, said the source.

The police chief in his letter noted that if he agreed to receive the executive allowance, this will demoralise the force that doesn’t hesitate to lay down lives on his orders.The source said that Mahsud informed the KP government that he would avail the executive allowance only when it was awarded to 508 officers, including 351 officers in BPS-17, 96 in grade-18, 37 officers in grade 19, another 19 in grade 20 and five officers in grade 21 under his command.

There has been resentment in the police force for the last many days after they were ignored in the financial benefit given to other civil officers. “The successes of police force in the last few years are the main achievements that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf has been claiming in every public meeting and on media and social media. We wonder what has made them ignore the officers of the force that is fighting militants and doing 24-hour duty and reward only those who are sitting in their luxury offices,” said a police official.

After the award of executive allowance, a grade 17 officer of another cadre would get more salary than a grade-18 policeman. “We are only getting a meagre amount as risk allowance that too for genuinely risking our lives while fighting militants and criminals,” a police officer said. He added that there is resentment among the officers of the KP Police after they felt ignored despite sacrificing their lives.

The KP government had issued a notification a few days back according to which 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. “Performance indicators like incidents of terrorism, crime and law & order situations have registered a steep decline during the last few years. The PTI ruling the province has been presenting the performance of police as their number one achievement in rallies and on the mainstream and social media,” said the senior official.

The official added that pay equal to other departments will maintain morale and pride of the force as they will know that their praise is not mere lip-service meant for public consumption but they liked and valued by the leadership.