LAHORE, Jan 20: A volunteer working with the Police Qaumi Razakar organization is entitled to a maximum of Rs14 and a minimum of Rs8 as daily allowance. The district commander PQR is getting Rs14 whereas Rs10 is the allowance for a company commander, a platoon commander and a section commander. A common volunteer has been paid Rs8 a day as allowance by the police department for decades.

However, the Punjab inspector-general of police had in July 2003 recommended to the home department that this allowance should be ‘reasonably’ enhanced because it was highly insufficient keeping in view their nature of duty of assisting the regular police force and a mounting cost of living.

The recommendations are yet to be approved by the provincial government, says a police department letter written to Advocate M.D. Tahir in reply to a legal notice sent earlier this month, seeking the department to revise the daily allowance which was ‘ridiculous’ in view of the rising cost of living.

The reply, sent by DIG (Welfare) Tehsin Anwar Ali on Thursday, says the daily allowance of district commander of the PQR is recommended to be raised from Rs14 to Rs100. Similarly, the stipend of company commander, a platoon commander and a section commander is proposed to be raised to Rs75 a day. A common volunteer will get Rs50 as daily allowance as and when the home department approves the revised allowance.

Besides, a uniform allowance of Rs500 a year is proposed as against Rs100.

Advocate Tahir told reporters that he would still move the Lahore High Court in a writ petition because even the revised allowance was hardly commensurate with the present-day living.

He said the poor strata of society usually assisted the police in their duty on occasions which came sparsely.