Irate highway patrol writes to chief minister

Demands that their allowances be revived; asks for repair of vehicles

LAHORE: Punjab Highway Patrol (PHP) has had enough and asked the Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif to stop the alleged victimisation of the force, revive its allowances and stop assigning tasks which did not fall into its purview. They issued these demands through a letter.

A copy of the document is available with The Express Tribune and it stated that Punjab Highway Patrol, a new wing of the police to counter crime on highways, was established during the tenure of former chief minister Chaurdhy Pervaiz Elahi.

It said that the patrol played a major role in fighting crime. “Due to the PHP, crime rate on highways has nosedived,” the letter said. They claimed the decrease was as much as 90%.



“At the start of the project, well-educated youth joined it as lucrative salary packages were on offer, along with a special allowance equal to one month’s basic pay.

An official of PHP, on the condition of anonymity, told The Express Tribune that a few of their colleagues were M Phil and PhD degree holders.

“Since the government of PML-Q left power, officials of the PHP were being treated with discrimination.

Your government and bureaucracy are striving to close down the department and its image is being tarnished in the eyes of the public”, the letter read.

Meanwhile, the official confirmed that these officers were being discriminated against on political grounds as the project was a success story of PML-Q.

Many allowances of PHP, including Rs2,000 for constable/head constable allowance and Rs4,300 of basic play allowance had been cut. The law and order allowance, amounting to Rs3,100, had been revived for all police wings, except PHP.

In 2009, salaries of the Punjab police were increased, but PHP was denied of this benefit, an official said.

The letter further said the job of the force was to counter crime on the highways and act as a first respondent to help commuters in case of an emergency. “Unfortunately, they have been assigned duties of issuing challans and impounding vehicles.

Their officers issued certain targets which had to be met at any cost. PHP had to misuse its authority to meet the target.”

He complained that their vehicles needed immediate replacement or repairs. “Often, officers can be seen pushing their vehicles which have gone out of order while on patrol. Sometimes, they fail to respond to emergency calls,” he said.

“These shortcoming and extra duties are not affecting their performance, but tarnishing the public image.” The PHP officials demanded that the CM address these concerns.



Another PHP official, seeking anonymity, said he was single at the time of hiring and the perks/ privileges were decent, while personal responsibilities were fewer. “After a decade, members of the force are married and have children to support, but their salaries have decreased.

These factors have frustrated them. Many colleagues have turned to corruption and taking bribes; a concept alien to them a decade ago.”

Documents available with The Express Tribune confirmed the claims of the letter on allowances.

A document showed that Punjab Service Tribunal had issued orders for the restoration of one additional basic pay and 20 days’ fixed daily allowance in January 2017.

Inspector General of Police also sent two summaries to the government in July 2017 and August 2017 for the restoration of allowances for officials of the PHP, but their grievances have not been addressed.

Punjab Highway Patrol Spokesperson Muhammad Qaddafi, while commenting on the issue, said officers have written time and again to ask the government to restore allowances and repair vehicles. “Addressing these problems was left at the discretion of the government.

We have brought the issues to their attention.”

He denied that any targets were issued to them for challans or to impound vehicles. He stressed that these were baseless allegations.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 18^th, 2017.