Ranker cops rise to new heights

Police in nine dists headed by officials promoted from lower posts

LAHORE:

The proportion of ranker officials appointed as district police officers (DPOs) in Punjab has reached 30 per cent.

It is for the first time that officials promoted as superintendent of police (SP) from the junior rank of assistant sub-inspector (ASI) have got such a high representation at the senior level in Punjab Police.

Earlier, hardly a couple of rankers managed to get posted as commanders the police in a district.

Traditionally, Police Service of Pakistan (PSP) officers held all the lucrative positions of influence and authority.

As many as nine rankers have been deputed out of the 29 serving district police chiefs. Under the provincial police’s organisational structure, the force in six districts is headed by city police officers (CPOs) serving in grade 20.

Another change evident from the official record that earlier the ranker officers managed to be selected as DPOs mostly in the districts considered less important, usually of the C and D categories. However, currently they have been assigned the key responsibility in more high profile districts.

An example is the Hafizabad district, where Anwar Saed has been appointed a the DPO. In Sheikhpura, Naveed Irshad has been deputed after the recent transfer of PSP officer Faisal Mukhtar and in Verhari Zafar Buzdar is serving as the DPO.

The post of the SP of CIA in Lahore is also considered to be very important and has been secured by a ranker officer, SP Shamsul Haq Durrani.

According to police officials, a PSP officer sometimes makes to the position of DPO within a span of around six years, unlike the rankers who in some cases have to serve for as long as 20 years or more to secure their first promotion. It is common for the police officials to see themselves being held accountable by officers considerably younger than themselves who hold he commanding positions.

However, some officials claimed that the ranker officials were easier to be pressured as many of them were prone to be ready to go the extra mile to oblige the higher authorities and retain the posts acquired by them after a prolonged and tedious service.

A retired official said there were apprehensions that some of such appointments might be politically motivated to get favours that would otherwise not be possible.

The recent appointments were made after the transfer of some senior police officers by acting Inspector General of Police Kanwar Shahrukh.

As many as six senior police officers were transferred on Thursday. Mirza Farhan Baig, who had been serving as the Deputy IG of the Elite Force, was transferred and posted as the Sahiwal Regional Police Officer (RPO) to replace Tayyab Hafiz Cheema who was posted as the Punjab Elite Force DIG.

Amin Bukhari, who was awaiting a posting in the Services and General Administration Department, was appointed as the Internal Accountability Branch DIG. Sadiq Ali, who too was awaiting a posting, was appointed as the DIG of Research and Development. SSP Omer Saed Malik, who was serving as the Faisalabad CPO, was transferred to the Central Police Office, while Nankana Sahib DPO Khalid Mehmood Hamdani was posted as the Faisalabad CPO.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 20^th, 2022.