December 17, 2006	Sunday	Ziqa'ad 25, 1427

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PESHAWAR, Dec 16: About 2,300 personnel of the Levy force in Kurram and Orakzai agencies have been denied pension and gratuity benefits since 1982 despite directives by the competent authorities to regularise their services, sources said.

Notably, the federal ministry of state and frontier region had regularised the services of the Levy force in the Bajaur Agency and about 1,500 personnel had been made entitled to pension and gratuity benefits. Similarly, the Levy personnel of Malakand and Dir districts are also getting the same benefits.

But the ministry had adopted a different yardstick in Kurram and Orakzai agencies of Fata and deprived the Levy men of such benefits, said an official.

Sources at the Fata civil secretariat told Dawn that the federal government had been requested many times to regularise the services of Levy personnel in these two agencies and make them entitled to pension and gratuity. But their case had been put in the cold storage.

The commissioner of defunct Kohat division had also notified in 1983 that the Levy personnel in Kurram and Orakzai agencies would get pensions.

The notification, Kohat Division Levies (Efficiency and Discipline Order, 1983), states: "The Levy men will be entitled to pension as admissible under the rules. In the event of the death of a serving Levy man attributable to public interest the legal heirs of the deceased shall be paid a sum of Rs1,000 as a gratuity out of the funds at the disposal of deputy commissioner/political agent concerned."

Moreover, a letter issued by the NWFP home department in 1992 had also directed the authorities concerned that Levies/Khassadars were non-pensionable in some of the agencies/frontier regions, but the government had extended gratuity benefits to them in lieu of the pension.

In the wake of the federal government's reforms plan for Fata, the ministry of state and frontier region had decided to extend the Levy force to Khyber, Mohmand, north and south Waziristan agencies.

The Levy will function as a police force and replace the Khassadar force gradually. The government has started a three-year training programme for the Levy personnel financed by the US government and donor agencies. Under the programme, 4,000 Levy personnel would be trained. The force would be equipped with weapons, transport and communication facilities.