ISLAMABAD: An additional inspector general of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police on Monday challenged the appointment of Salahuddin Khan Mehsud as the inspector general of the KP police, contending that a grade 20 officer cannot become the provincial police chief.

AIG Akhtar Ali Shah in his petition pointed out that Mr Mehsud was promoted to grade 21 under a controversial formula which the Islamabad High Court (IHC) and the Supreme Court later set aside. Therefore, he said, the appointment of Mr Mehsud as the IGP, which was a BPS-21 or 22 post, had become infructuous.

The federal government on February 10, 2014, introduced a promotion formula that gave an overriding effect of five marks on 95pc marks.

The Central Selection Board (CSB) was empowered not to recommend the promotion of a bureaucrat who would fail to obtain a minimum three out of the five marks.

Petitioner says Salahuddin Khan Mehsud was promoted under a controversial formula, which was later declared void by SC

It means that despite securing 95pc marks, an officer cannot be promoted unless the board grants them at least three out of the five marks.

Interestingly, while the matter was pending before the Supreme Court, the Establishment Division on November 8, 2016, submitted a statement to the court that it would not apply the controversial formula in further promotion of the civil servants.

Under the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police Ordinance 2016 and its predecessor Police Order 2002, no police officer below the rank of BPS-21 or BPS-22 can be appointed as the provincial police chief.

The petitioner claimed that the incumbent IGP was a junior (grade 20) officer of the Police Service of Pakistan (PSP), who was purportedly promoted to BPS-21 under the controversial and now defunct 2016 CSB meeting.

The counsel for the petitioner, Barrister Masroor Shah, adopted that since the CSB had applied the controversial formula in about 800 promotions in 2015 and 2016, the entire promotions had become null and void after the apex court recently upheld the intra-court appeals in the matter.

After hearing the petition, Justice Aamir Farooq of the IHC issued notices to the secretary Establishment Division and the newly-appointed KP police chief.

Arguing before the court, Barrister Shah said Mr Mehsud was promoted to grade 21 in the controversial 2016 CSB whose proceedings were declared null and void by the Supreme Court.

Hence the incumbent IGP is still a BPS 20 officer and cannot be appointed as the IGP as enunciated in Section 14 of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police Ordinance 2016.

Barrister Shah said under the law only a grade 21 or 22 police officer can be appointed as the IGP.

He argued that the appointment of the IGP was not only contrary to the law but also amounted to the contempt of the judgments of the Supreme Court.

The petitioner held the charge of the acting IGP of KP after the retirement of Nasir Khan Durrani on March 17.

Published in Dawn, April 4th, 2017