PESHAWAR: A group of officers of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police has openly opposed ‘promotion of blue-eyed cops against merit’.
Meanwhile, the force has been delaying due seniority to a cop despite a verdict in his favour by the Services Tribunal in 2018.
A source told The News that a group of officers, currently posted as district police officers (DPOs) and superintendents of police (SPs), has expressed its concern over the recently revised seniority list of officers in few police regions.
“On the directives of the IGP some regions have issued fresh seniority lists awarding seniority to officers who were previously posted as juniors for one or the other reasons, including the mandatory period of posting as station house officer (SHO),” said the source.
The source added that the fresh seniority list by the regions has already resulted in debate among the cops.
“Some of the SPs, including those posted as DPOs, have directly conveyed their grievances in letters and applications to the IGP,” the source continued.
These officers even alleged that those having political backing had been placed senior to them despite the fact that they were junior to them by years for not completing the mandatory courses and postings.
In one of the letters written to the top bosses of the KP Police, an officer stated that his service record spoke of outstanding performance but now he and many of his batch-mates have been placed junior to some officers.
“The politicised revised seniority notification vide No. 60/E-II dated 12.02.2020 may kindly be set aside and seniority of the petitioner may be restored. I was appointed as probationer assistant sub-inspector vide order No.7955-62/E on July 27, 1998 and promoted as sub-inspector on 17.11.2001 and inspector on December 16, 2005. I was promoted as deputy Superintendent of Police on 07 11.2012 on the recommendation of the departmental promotion committee of the provincial police,” stated a letter by one of the SPs to the police chief.
The officer pointed out that in the illegal seniority list, some DSPs have been made senior to the petitioner while in all the previous seniority lists they were junior to him.
“I and my batch-mates were promoted to the rank of regular inspector and DSP much earlier than these officers. I was placed on list F on December 16, 2005 in provincial level seniority list and as per Police rules 13-15(4) seniority in the list F will be in accordance with the date of entry. The illegal revised seniority list has been issued due to the political pressure as they are posted with a top government functionary,” stated a letter by one of these SPs.
The group of officers also alleged that the cops having political backing managed to revise their date of confirmation to the rank of sub-inspector by their respective regional police officer on October 30 last year.
Meanwhile, the force has been delaying due seniority to another acting SP despite the fact that Services Tribunal had issued a verdict in his favour on August 2, 2018.
The tribunal directed the police bosses to award due seniority to Waqar Ahmad, currently serving as acting superintendent of police (SP), who was placed junior by the department to over 100 officers after he went abroad for a United Nations mission. The officer had to move the tribunal when he wasn’t placed with his batch in the seniority list.
Later, the then inspector general of police (IGP) Mohammad Naeem Khan directed the authorities concerned to implement the verdict of the tribunal.
“While complying with the orders, the capital city police officer placed him with his batch in the seniority list on April 15, 2019. The CCPO also wrote to the Central Police Office for further correcting the list since the powers of fixing seniority of inspectors and above rests with the CPO,” the source added.
However, the source continued, the CPO has been delaying to place the acting SP with his batch-mates in the fresh seniority list for almost a year. The spokesman for the KP Police when approached said those promoted were recruited well before the petitioners but they could not get promotion for not spending mandatory period as SHOs and holding other positions.
“Now the seniority of all those who were deprived of these postings not because of their fault is being revised which is in accordance with the rules and not a violation,” the official said. He added that rest of the police regions were also going to revise the seniority lists for which they need to check it thoroughly to avoid any litigation in future.