Special Police Force officers regularised

PESHAWAR: Deployed over a decade ago to tackle militancy in the province, the provincial government has decided to regularise officers of the Special Police Force which has been deployed across the province.

This was announced by Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Chief Minister Mahmood Khan during his speech in the provincial assembly on Wednesday.

Mahmood said that since peace has been restored, his government will regularise the 10,000 special police officers (SPOs) of the province.

According to the official announcement in this regard, the basic salaries of SPOs will be Rs15,000 — which is less than the Rs17,500 minimum wage set by the provincial government for the incoming fiscal year  2019-20. However, no medical, transport or dressing allowance will be available for them.

The special police force has had to wait for nine years for this announcement.

During the tenure of the Awami National Party (ANP), the SPOs were appointed at Rs10,000 a month. The SPOs later challenged the lack of regularisation in court. When that did not turn out in their favour, they requested the K-P inspector general of police to regularise them.

It is pertinent to mention  that some 1,555 SPOs were appointed in Peshawar, 5,600 in Malakand, 500 in Bannu through the years.

During this time, data of the force showed that around 500 SPOs embraced martyrdom in all police stations of the province.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 27^th, 2019.