PESHAWAR: The provincial police force is facing a shortage of around 170 supervisory officers from grade 17 to grade 19, resulting in the posting of junior cops against several senior positions.
A senior police officer confirmed that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police force was short of 68 SSPs and SPs in grade 19 and grade 18, respectively. The force is short of over 100 ASPs and DSPs in grade 17.
At the constabulary level, the KP police is short of over 10,000 policemen compared to their sanctioned strength.
The force has faced a shortage for the last two decades. On many occasions, several grade 19 officers served as regional police officers due to the unavailability of officers in grade 18.
Also, grade 17 cops remained posted as district police officers as well as superintendent of police (SP) Investigation, SP Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) and SPs in other units due to lack of grade 18 SPs.
Even some inspectors have served as SP Investigation and SP CTD in the past years, while sub-inspectors remained DSPs. This was mostly due to a shortage of senior officers, while a few blue-eyed were posted by their respective bosses to oblige them.
Many SPs in a number of districts, CTD and other units of the force are still in grade 17, while a large number of inspectors in grade-16 are posted against the positions of DSPs to meet the requirement. They all have been given a shoulder promotion.
They need to serve for many years to be officially promoted to the grade and rank against which they are already posted.
This has also affected the performance of many senior offices as the cops posted there are inexperienced for these positions while many also lack the required confidence.
To meet the requirement of officers in senior grades, the force has also been demanding ‘hard area’ status for provinces like Balochistan and Gilgit-Baltistan so senior officers serve in KP for the purpose of service.
Senior officers have to serve for two mandatory years in any hard area before promotion to grade-20.
Currently, Balochistan and Gilgit-Baltistan have been declared hard areas for the purpose of service and many grade 19 and grade 18 officers served there for two years. KP has demanded the same status on many occasions in the last 14 years but the federal government paid no heed to it despite the law and order situation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa remaining the worst compared to other provinces.
Recently, KP IGP Zulfiqar Hameed said that progress has been made in the case and there are hopes that after going through several ministries, a case will be prepared soon for putting it before the federal cabinet in the coming months.
