Promised shift system in KP police never introduced

PESHAWAR: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government could not introduce the shift system for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police that it had promised before and after the 2013 general election.

Besides, the junior policemen from assistant sub-inspectors down to the constables are unhappy over the meagre increase in their salaries following the upgradation of their pay scale.

The officials of the PTI government on a number of occasions promised introduction of shift system in the provincial police force to give relief to the constables as well as junior officials. Most of them perform duty round-the-clock, depending upon the directives of the station house officers and moharrirs of a police station.

A source in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police informed that the shift system was considered on a number of occasions but the idea had to be dropped due to lack of resources, shortage of manpower and deployment of a large number of policemen with the VIPs.

Many among those deployed with the VIPs were withdrawn recently on the directives of the chief justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

“A former district police officer made an effort in Kohat to implement the system in one of his police stations but the idea did not work for long due to shortage of manpower and resources,” the source informed.

As the government did not have enough resources to implement the plan, the section of the proposed law regarding the shift system was amended.

Many police stations in the province have been declared as model police stations by merely setting up a female desk and doing some renovation of the building. However, the environment in all these police stations is still the same. Officers right from the station house officers to constables perform duty round-the-clock.

“Most of the policemen are on duty in the police stations for 24 hours. Their duty can be in one go or twice a day for many hours. The main problem is that they are not allowed to go home as they can be called anytime when the SHO needs their services,” said a source.

Even the station house officers and other seniors in the police stations cannot go home to meet their family for many days.

This has forced many officers to look for clerical assignments or find a place in the investigation wing so they can go home in the evening. “Only those prefer to be posted as SHOs who either want to complete their mandatory period for promotion to the next rank or earn more money through unfair means,” the source said.

The barracks at most of the police stations and police posts have no facilities to live or better utilise their time inside the police stations. The houses allocated to the SHOs and moharrirs are mostly occupied by other officers who are not vacating them for long.

There were claims that proper TV lounge and barracks with better facilities will be arranged for the policemen but nothing has been done in this regard. Many police stations are housed in rented buildings.

Officials said that most of the police stations are short of strength already so they cannot allow the cops to return to their homes as they can be called any time in case of need.

The officials said barracks have been improved and solar system installed in almost all police stations for continuous power supply. He added a number of police lines, police stations and posts have been rebuilt and provided more facilities in the recent past.

A number of junior policemen said their grades have been elevated but it raised their salaries hardly by a few hundred rupees. “The increase in salary is nothing. We thought at least a few thousand rupees would be added to our salaries with upgradation but that is not the case,” said a policeman.

“They may not enjoy upgradation during the first year but they will benefit till retirement. They will get increased increment and allowances every fiscal year,” spokesman for KP Police Waqar Ahmad said. He added that a single grade increase means a lot. He said that a number of measures had been taken to improve the lifestyle of the cops, including upgradation, more allowances and increase in shaheed package.