April 19, 2006	Wednesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 20, 1427

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LAHORE, April 18: The Punjab government has withdrawn the scheme to induct army officers of the rank of major and captain into the provincial police following strong protests by senior police officers.

Many senior officers had threatened to resign, asking even the IGP to quit if he could not protect his force, sources told Dawn here on Tuesday.

“The proposal has been withdrawn as the chief minister has been conveyed the resentment shown by a majority of senior police officials,” they said.

A minister confirmed the news and said the cabinet too had requested the chief minister to withdraw the decision in view of the objections raised by the police officers.

The plan to induct around 170 retired army officers of the rank of major and captain was announced by IGP Ziaul Hasan Khan at a meeting here on March 31. Around 50 of the officers were to be posted as district highways patrolling officers, controlling the highway patrolling posts.

The IGP had reportedly announced that the induction would be handled by a board to be headed by him. The members of the board were stated to be the home secretary and the DIG highways.

The senior police officials, who were attending the meeting had expressed their serious concern over the plan, declaring it a threat to the career of many of them.

The reaction was conveyed to the chief minister, who called a meeting of all DPOs and senior police officers a few days later, announcing that no decision would be taken against their interests.

The sources said under the proposal the army officers were to be recruited at a monthly salary of Rs50,000 per month. And as the salary of an SP was much less than that, this single factor created a lot of resentment among the serving police officials.