Rudderless? Vacant posts hurting K-P police

There are 35 BPS-19 posts in the force of which only 14 are filled and 21 are vacant


Riaz Ahmed December 27, 2017
The law and order situation has improved considerably corresponding with a 67 per cent drop in target killing. PHOTO: FILE

PESHAWAR: Despite the fact that Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa is on the frontlines on the war on terror, it is surprising then that the province’s police force has a number of senior police posts which are lying vacant.

According to an official document, there are as many as 65 posts in basic pay scale (BPS) 18 through 21 are empty.

There are 113 posts through these four BPS grades in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) police.

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Among these there 54 posts in BPS 18. But currently, only 19 of these posts are filled with 35 posts lying vacant.

There are 35 BPS-19 posts in the force of which only 14 are filled and 21 are vacant.

In BPS-20, 14 of the 19 posts are filled with only five vacant. In the BPS 21 grade posts, only one of the five posts is filled.

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A senior police official told The Express Tribune on the condition of anonymity since he feared retribution from his superiors, said that owing to the shortage of senior officers inducted through the Police Service of Pakistan (PSP), junior police officers had been granted shoulder promotions (rank upgrades without corresponding BPS grade increase) and appointed to the vacant posts.

“But this was causing problems since in some cases those officers do not get promotion who deserve it,” the officer said.

He lamented that the situation in K-P was quite similar to that in Balochistan. With both provinces at the forefront in the fight against terrorism, police officers — juniors as well as the seniors — were frequently targeted by terrorists. 

Published in The Express Tribune, December 27th, 2017.

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