PTI yet to introduce promised shift system in police

PESHAWAR: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) governments at the centre and in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have yet to introduce shift system in the police force that was promised by the leadership before the 2013 general election.

A number of PTI officials had claimed in the past that the shift system will be introduced in the police force once the party came into power so the policemen can also perform duty like other departments.

The promise could not be honoured despite the fact that the party ruled the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province for five years. Now when the party is in power in the country and has formed the government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for the second time, the cops have reminded it of the promise that was made years back.

Most of the policemen 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 said that the shift system was considered on a number of occasions but the idea had to be dropped for lack of resources, shortage of manpower and deployment of a large number of policemen with the VIPs. The source said that an attempt was made by a former district police officer in Kohat in one police station but the idea did not work for long due to the shortage of manpower and resources.

Many police stations in the province have been declared as model police stations by merely setting up a few new desks and doing some renovation of the building. However, the environment in all these police stations is still the same.