Police career: Pay scale upgrades sought for 44,545 cops

Last upgrade in the department was in 1990

LAHORE: A special committee deliberating on a proposal for upgrade of pay scales in the Police Department has endorsed upgrades for 44,545 police officials.

The decision was made at a meeting held at Civil Secretariat under the chairmanship of Additional Chief Secretary Shamail Ahmad Khawaja on Tuesday.

Those recommended for pay scale upgrade include 12,681 C-II constables, 18,680 head constables and 13,004 assistant sub inspectors (ASIs).

The total number of constables in the Police Department is 126,809. Of these, around 10 per cent would be would be upgraded from pay scale 5 to pay scale 7. These constables have already passed the required departmental examination for the purpose.

The last upgrade of payscale in the Police Department had been in 1990. The posts of constables, head constables and ASIs had been upgraded from BPS-02, BPS-03 and BPS-05, respectively, to BPS-05, BPS-07 and BPS-09, respectively, in 1990.

Speaking at the meeting on Tuesday, the additional chief secretary said that pay scales had been reviewed on the directions of Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif. He said the step had been taken to facilitate police officials in view of their satisfactory performance against terrorist outfits over the last decade. He said the level of respect and dignity accorded to the officials by the society would determine their success against the menace of terrorism. He said a better incentives structure could also be helpful in this regard.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 13^th, 2016.