LAHORE, April 24: The plan to appoint BS-19 officers as district police officers (DPOs) in Punjab has been dropped under the pretext of shortage of the required personnel.

The plan had been made by the provincial home department early this month but, according to official sources, it was withdrawn under the pretext of shortage of BS-19 officers, and that better policing was possible only through right men at the right posts no matter they were in BS-18.

Sources however said there was no dearth of BS-19 officers and the excuse had been given just to keep “the selected” officers posted as DPOs in the province.

Out of 30 DPOs in Punjab, only five are in BS-19. The rest are BS-18 officers either belonging to the Police Service of Pakistan or promoted DSPs.

The sources said there were 42 BS-19 officers in the province. But a majority of them was working in offices or appointed at unimportant posts because they did not belong to any influential group or fulfil the “actual requirements” of having a field posting.

There were 160 BS-19 police officers in Pakistan but a number of them were working against ex-cadre posts. All of them were willing to come to Punjab for any posting but only those were picked who had some approach or links with the right quarters.

“Punjab can demand more officers from the federal government because of its 52 per cent share in the country’s job quota. A number of BS-19 officers belonging to Punjab are posted in other provinces and they will happily come here,” a source said.

He said under the police orders the role of DPO had been expanded in view of the elimination of the office of the deputy commissioner. And this itself demands the posting of senior officers (BS-19) as DPOs for better command.

“As to how one can expect better management from an SP-rank DPO who is required to handle officers of equal rank but posted as his juniors,” another source said.

He said every district now had SPs investigation, traffic, headquarters and additional SPs who should better be commanded by an officer senior to them.

He said the appointment of BS-18 officers as DPOs was also depriving the BS-19 officers of the mandatory field service required for promotion to the next higher grade.

“Many BS-19 officers have not been promoted to BS-20 because they had no or less field experience. But none of the authorities considered the fact that it was not their fault and they had actually not been given any field post,” he said. —Intikhab Hanif