Newly-promoted: A dozen DSPs flaunt Matric as highest qualification

Among the batch of these DSPs, only nine have a BA/BSC degree

PESHAWAR: While there is a constable in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) police who has a PhD degree and some lady constables with double masters, there are in the province also some police officers, including high officials like deputy superintendent of police (DSP), who boast nothing more than Matric as their highest qualification.

Recently the K-P police promoted 37 inspectors to the rank of DSPs in which 15 are just matriculate while one of them is even under matric as he dropped out of school in class 9. Among the batch of the newly promoted DSPs, only nine have a BA/BSC degree while seven have received education only till 12thgrade.

Interestingly, there are four DSPs with LLB degrees but all of them have been posted as DSP legal and none of them have been in operation police.

Before this promotion, there were 212 DSPs in the K-P in total. Of them, 35 had passed just 10th grade [matriculation]. It is, therefore, just an accepted norm in the K-P to appoint officers with less-than-enviable qualification on higher posts.

Talking to The Express Tribune, a police official said there had been no fixed criterion for promotions in the past. “It was neither dependent on your seniority nor qualification or performance. Some senior police officers invented several methods like one step promotions etc., to reward their blue-eyed boys.

“In addition, there was the seniority-cum-fitness formula through which they could pronounce anyone fit for a post and appoint him. This enabled them to promote people who can’t even write their names in English,” he said. He said the new police chief introduced some merit in promotions.

“But even the inspector general police (IGP) can’t do anything about those strong Annual Confidential Reports (ACRs) some of these policemen have due to their influential background. If you have a strong ACR, you get a promotion automatically,” he added. A majority of the matriculate DSPs belongs to Charsadda and Mansehra districts while two of them hail from Peshawar. Two DSPs belong to DI Khan district too. The only DSP with a class 9 qualification belongs to Swabi district and he joined police force in the year 1981.

Talking to The Express Tribune a police official said there was a mechanism and committee for the promotions of the DSPs and SPs so everything was being done on merit.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 28^th, 2016.