ISLAMABAD: The capital police are performing duties amid a severe shortage of senior supervisory officers, as 11 officers are available against a total of 18 sanctioned posts for Grade-19 to Grade-21 officers.

Insiders told Dawn that the capital police were facing a dearth of officers after a number of officials were transferred out of the station or quit the service for multiple reasons, but primarily due to alleged politicking by police high-ups.

The sources claimed that some officers left in the wake of allegations that the police were serving the ruling party, instead of the state, whereas others had some reservations over the decisions taken by their high-ups. In addition, the services of some officers were surrendered to the Establishment Division as they were “considered a threat” to the police bigwigs’ interests.

Amid this shortage, the available officers are either working on posts beyond their service grades or have to take up additional responsibilities.

Junior officers given senior posts, additional charges as short-handed police struggle to function

Besides Inspector General of Police Akbar Nasir, two Grade-20 officers – Awais Ahmed and Hassan Raza – are available to perform duties on five DIG posts i.e Operations, Logistics, Security, Law and Order and Director General of Safe City Islamabad.

DIG Ahmed is performing duties as DIG Headquarters with the additional charge of Law and Order while DIG Raza is currently deployed as DIG Security. Recently, DIG Law and Order Rommel Akram and DIG Fareed Ali, who was heading the Safe City, were posted out of the capital police.

On Feb 9, IG Akbar Nasir had given DIG Ahmed another charge as the operations head of the Islamabad police but the commissioner overruled the IG and appointed a Grade-19 officer as DIG Operations, insiders told Dawn.

Mohammad Shoaib Khurram, a grade-19 officer (SSP), was transferred to capital police and appointed as Director General Safe City on April 12 despite it was a grade 20 officer post.

Grade-19

There are 12 sanctioned posts for Grade-19 that comprise SSP (operational) and AIG (administrative). These posts pertain to SSP Operations, Security, Logistics, Law and Order, ITP, Investigations, Counter-Terrorism Department; Assistant Inspector General (AIG) Establishment, General, Operations and Special Branch, and Director Operations Safe City.

According to the police officers, two more posts were created in the police without the approval of the authority concerned, namely SSP SPU and AIG Investigations and Complaints for the Grade-19 officers.

They said out of the sanctioned slots for Grade-19, there were only eight officers available with the police, including the officers serving as the DIG Operations (Grade-20 post) and director general safe city.

Among the other five officers is SSP Yasir Afridi, who is serving as the AIG Special Branch with the additional charge of the CTD SSP.

Other Grade-19 officers include Zahida Bukhari who is serving as SSP SPU, Ghulfam Nasir serving as SSP Law and Order, Mustafa Tanveer as SSP ITP and Maria Mehmood as AIG General and Development.

Mohammad Iqbal, a grade 19 officer (SSP), who was recently transferred to the capital police has been appointed as SSP Investigation on April 12.

Grade-18

Malik Jameel Zafar, who is a Grade-18 officer, serving on a Grade-19 slot as SSP Operations, has yet to attend the mid-career management course which is necessary for promotion to the next grade. He was scheduled to attend the course in December 2022, but the IGP did not grant him leave for the course, the sources said.

Other Grade-18 officers (SPs) Masood Bangash, Zeeshan Haider, Shahzad Umar Abbas Babar and Saud Khan are serving as SSP Security, SSP Operations Safe City with additional charge of SP Plan and Patrolling and AIG Operations, respectively.

SP Faryal Fareed is serving as AIG Investigations and Complaint with the additional charge of SSP Logistics - both Grade-19 posts. While the post of the Safe City director operations has been lying vacant.

Against 20 slots of SPs (Grade-18), at least 18 officers are available. However, six of the SPs are working on posts beyond their pay scales.

The other officers in the same pay grade include Nosherawn Ali, Hassan Jahangir and Khan Zeb who are serving as Zonal SP Saddar, Rural and Industrial Area, respectively.

The officers said Sami Malik is serving as SP Plan and Patrolling with the additional charge of SP ATS while Hamza Humayun is performing duties as SP Administration CTD; Tahir Mehmood as SP Operations CTD; Rana Tahir Hussain as SP Headquarters; Zaheer Ahmed as SP DPD [Diplomatic Protection Department], and Riaz Ahmad Bosal as SP MP House.

In light of a shortage of officers, at least five Grade-17 officers (ASP/DSP) are serving at the Grade-18 posts: Rukhsar Mehdi as SP Special Investigation Unit, Chaudhry Abid as SP ITP; Iqbal Khan as SP SSG; Mohammad Auqab as SP VIP/Route; and Raja Tahir as the SP Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, the offices of SPs Investigations East and West, SP ARU, SP Presidency, SP National Assembly, and SP Special Branch are lying vacant.

The capital police have nine posts for the Assistant Superintendent of Police and out of the total, three are available. ASP Abdul Aleem serving as SDPO Shahzad Town with the additional charge of SDPO Sihala, Asad Ali as SDPO Nilore and Ali Raza as SDPO Bhara Kahu.

The capital police have also 42 posts of DSPs and out of the total, 35 are available.

The police PRO was approached several times for comments during the last two weeks, but every time he was reluctant to comment on the issue and sought time to issue a response in detail.

Published in Dawn, April 16th, 2023