PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police department is facing shortage of 47 officers belonging to the Police Service of Pakistan (PSP) cadre.

The police have written a letter to the provincial home and tribal affairs department raising the issue of BS-18-19 officers’ shortage for posting in the province.

The letter states that the department is facing acute shortage of PSP officers, thus affecting the command structure of the force both on the staff and field assignments.

It said the shortage of PSP officers could be gauged from the fact that currently 51 PSP officers in BS-18 and 19 were working in the province against the sanctioned strength of 98.

The letter said that sanctioned strength of BS-19 officers in the province stood at 42, while there were only 19 of them currently working, and out of 56 sanctioned BS-18 officers’ posts the province had only 32 on its payroll.

The police have asked the home department to approach the establishment division to meet the deficiency of the officers.

A senior police official told Dawn that time and again requests had been made for giving the KP police more PSP officers in BS-18 and 19 grades, but to no avail.

He said getting more PSP officers in these grades would increase the pool as well as options available to the police chief to pick good, clean and competent officers as DPOs for the province as well as the merged districts.

“The issue with officers is that no one wants to move out of Islamabad and Punjab. Everyone has an excuse,” the official added.

Published in Dawn, November 23rd, 2019