Blue-eyed junior cops made SPs in KP Police

PESHAWAR: Openly violating merit and seniority, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police authorities have posted 37 junior officers as superintendents of police (SPs) during the last many months, ignoring more than 100 of their seniors who have been waiting for promotion for years, a source confided to The News.
The blue-eye cops were promoted on the recommendations of the concerned regional police officers (RPOs), department heads or political figures with the connivance of senior cops at the Central Police Office (CPO), the source added.
Despite being acting SPs, they have been enjoying all the perks, privileges and protocol of grade-18 SPs. Some of them have even served as district police officers (DPOs). “The DSPs who have no backing or support from any RPO or DIG, however, have to salute to their juniors, causing embarrassment to many of them,” added the source.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Inspector General of Police (IGP) Nasir Khan Durrani, however, told The News that the SPs were posted in order of seniority. The seniority list of the grade-17 deputy superintendents of police (DSPs) clearly mentions that over 100 of them were ignored after selectively picking officers for posting as acting SPs.
“The seniority list of the DSPs shows that a DSP is on number 176 in the seniority list but is posted as SP. Others promoted as SPs are on numbers 134, 127, 107, 105, 99, 86, 83, 82, 78, etc. On the other hand those on number 6, 10, 13, 15, 18, 19, 22, 24, 27, 29, 32, 36, 39, 40, 42, 43, 43, 44 and others in the seniority list are still serving as DSPs,” the source disclosed.
The source added that some of their juniors have been SPs for over two years now, demoralising the seniors who have been awaiting posting for years now.Many of these junior DSPs have remained DPOs in one or the other district. Their majority, however, is posted as SP Investigation.
Realizing the injustice, the CPO had to issue a circular recently in which all the additional IGPs, capital city police officer, RPOs and other department heads were directed to consider the DSPs on number 1, 2, 6, 10, 12, 13, 15, 18, 19, 22, 24, 27, 29 and 32 of the seniority list for posting as SPs in future.
The two on the top have recently been posted as SPs. “The posting of juniors while ignoring such large number of seniors is in clear violation of the policies of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, which claims to be doing all the postings on merit. This also speaks volumes about the merit being followed on postings at senior level,” said the source.
Some DSPs believe the IGP and KP government should dismiss them from service of they are such incompetent. “These ignored DSPs argue that how they reached to this level if they are such incompetent. Some want to be dismissed if they are such useless for the force,” the source said.
Though the notification of their posting says they are posted as acting SPs, these officers are enjoying all the official benefits of permanent SPs. “They are heading the force of an entire district or the investigation wing of the district. They are living in designated houses and enjoy all the protocol of their postings,” said the source.
The source added that majority of them are wearing the ranks of SPs, which is clear violation of the directives of the apex court against shoulder promotions. Still, many deputy inspectors general, SSPs, SPs and officers of other ranks are wearing ranks of senior positions against which they are working due to shortage of senior cops.
A senior police officer at the CPO admitted that junior DSPs were recently posted as directors/SPs of various schools. “Since nobody was willing to be posted there, we offered it to juniors who are posted as directors now,” said the officer.The official added that the IGP KP has recently issued a list of 100 DSPs, directing all the concerned officers to post only from among them if needed for posting as SP.