Khyber Pakhtunkhwa cops up in arms for promotion

PESHAWAR: The provincial police officers are up in arms after claiming they have been deprived of the right to promotion despite there are 32 vacancies in senior grade available in the province, a source told The News.

The provincial police officers are demanding a service structure like that of the provincial management service (PMS ) for the cops of the province to smoothly run the affairs of the force.

There was a plan for setting up the provincial police service (PPS) and work was started on it by the former provincial government.

A similar plan has recently been announced by the Sindh government.

The PPS in KP could not be set up after resistance by other cadres.

“For the last several months, the provincial police officers have been demanding a meeting of the departmental board to take up the cases of promotions of many deputy superintendents of police (DSPs) as SPs. There are 32 vacancies available for provincial police DSPs to be promoted as SPs in BPS-18,” a group of provincial police officers told The News.

The cops said no board has been called since 2019, delaying the promotion of these officers as SPs and others as DSPs. The delay affected many other cops in junior ranks.

One officer said according to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police Act, 2017, the Central Police Office must hold three promotion board meetings annually but not a single meeting has been convened in the last three years.

“Many senior DSPs retired after the CPO failed to call the promotion board” said an officer.

There have been a number of occasions when the officers of the KP Police launched the movement to demand their rights, which topped promotion to the next ranks.

Most of them remain silent when promoted to the desired grade while their juniors start a fresh campaign. Some of the provincial officers said the provincial cops were given 40 per cent share in all police service of Pakistan (PSP) senior positions.

“The officers and cops of the province share over 99 per cent strength of the force but in promotion, they get only 40 per cent which is also mostly denied,” one cop complained.

Besides, he added, there are clear directives by the Supreme Court of Pakistan that provincial police officers must be inducted in time according to their share.

“But the seniors in CPO use delaying tactics to deprive provincial police officers of their promotion. The PSP officers inducted in 2017 have been promoted to grade 18 while the DSPs have been waiting since 2012 for their promotion to BPS-18,” said an official.

Apart from seniors, the provincial officers are also facing resistance from within their ranks on the basis of regions as well as different criteria for promotions adopted at different times.

The provincial officers mostly include those who were recruited as assistant sub-inspectors. They also included some officers who were recruited as DSPs in grade-17.

“However, since there was no service structure for them, most of them suffered throughout their service. Many of them could get only one promotion in over three decades of service,” said an official.

He said a senior PCS officer Sajid Khan Mohmand was recruited as DSP in grade-17 in 1988 but he could get only one promotion to grade-18 in almost 29 years of service before he was martyred in a suicide attack in Chaman, Balochistan.

Gul Afzal Afridi was another police officer who performed well wherever he was posted in almost three decades of service and retired in grade-18 for not having a proper service structure.

Another senior officer Rabnawaz Khan, who has served as a district police officer in several districts as well as abroad, could get only one promotion in 20 years.

Many officers added that this was because of the policies of the government that some officers, who were respected for being honest and brave, could not get the due promotion as there was no proper service structure for them.

A good number of those recruited as constables have reached the rank of SP in 30 years of service with getting several step promotion.

However, all those from different cadres of the province are stopped for years when it comes to promotion above grade-17.

Some of the PCS cops are still struggling at various forums to get the right to promotion, at least on a par with the officers of the PMS.