PESHAWAR: The commandant of Malakand Levies, Salman Lodhi, has reverted undue shoulder promotions of more than 100 personnel, who were posted on senior positions.

The commandant took the action under the standing operating procedures for strengthening of Levies Force recently issued on the directives of Chief Secretary Mohammad Azam Khan, according to a statement.

The officials having shoulder promotion had occupied important senior positions. Now regular promotions of 117 Levies personnel have been made as per their right and regularly promoted officers will take commanding positions to maintain discipline.

Regularly promoted officers to occupy command positions in the force

The Malakand Levies and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Information Technology Board have launched a project jointly to automate and connect all 14 Levies posts in the district and strengthen the force.

After digitalisation of the posts, FIR and Roznamcha would be registered through a specially designed software. All FIRs and Roznamcha will be registered in that software by trained Levy staffers.

The establishment of central command and control room at Levy Headquarters Malaknd is also part of the plan.

For the effective monitoring of FIRs from central command and control room, a tracking system for the progress will be introduced that will also be accessible from the provincial home department.

The installation of trackers in all Levies vehicles and their monitoring through headquarters is also part of the SOPs.

An effective Emergency 15 Levies Service is will be established in Batakhela with dedicated force and vehicles. The Levies vehicles will be tracked through central command and control room to direct the nearest available vehicle/rider to react to emergency.

The existing Levies Lines is in poor condition and funds have been arranged for its uplift. A separate messing and residing area will be established in Levies Lines.

The statement said that Zarabad post would be upgraded immediately to facilitate the officials, stationed at the most important entry point of the district.

It will also project an effective and disciplined outlook of Levies Force.

A website for Malakand Levies is about to complete that will be launched soon. All necessary information regarding Levies posts, manpower, history, legal position and HR database will be available on the website.

A separate mobile application has been made that will serve as a databank of all proclaimed offenders in the district.

It will carry all relevant information including pictures, addresses and FIRs that will be accessible by all post commanders.

It will help in tracking the proclaimed offenders down and maintaining their record.

The home department will be requested to provide requisite funds to provide pre-service six months training to recruits in Police Training College Hangu.

The training will focus on investigations and forensic sciences aspects, according to the statement.

Published in Dawn, November 6th, 2017