Civil rights activist seeks raises, promotions in province’s ‘neglected’ police force. PHOTO: EXPRESS
KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Monday issued notices to the provincial chief secretary, the home and finance secretaries, Sindh IG and others to file comments on a petition about increased salaries and perks in the police force.
A division bench was hearing the petition filed by civil rights campaigner Rana Faizul Hasan, who had taken the authorities to court regarding a raise in cops’ salaries and against illegal promotions.
Hasan said that the members of the Sindh police were being neglected despite being more affected by militancy than their counterparts in other provinces. He told the judges that 181 policemen had been killed in Sindh in 2014 but the authorities only responded with media statements.
“Junior officers catch militants but senior officers portray these as killings in fake encounters and take away the due promotions and rewards,” he alleged. He added that the salaries should be at par with their counterparts in Punjab.
Illegal promotions
The petitioner also pointed out that promotions in the police force were not given on time due to which thousands of posts were still lying vacant.
“Some officials receive these posts on the recommendations of ministers and advisors in exchange for bribes,” he claimed, adding that the opposition leader in the Sindh Assembly had admitted this fact on the floor of the House.
Hasan said that 500 sub-inspector posts were lying vacant because junior officers had not been promoted for 15 to 20 years. “These posts have deliberately been kept vacant,” he alleged. “There is a rate of Rs1 million fixed for promotion to the post of inspector.”
He said that competent and deserving officials should be given their due right of promotion to the next grades and for this purpose, a committee should be constituted to consider promotions within the force strictly on the basis of merit. The court was pleaded to direct the authorities to implement the increase in the salaries of policemen in all its departments, units and cells without discrimination. The bench issued notices to the respondents to file their comments through the provincial law officer by February 16.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 11th, 2015.
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