- Junior officers use ‘connections’ to get additional charge of senior posts
- Special Branch SP denies cases of shoulder promotions in his department
In violation of the Supreme Court’s order against shoulder promotions, many cases have been reported where junior officials from various departments are continuing to work on senior posts, Pakistan Today has learnt.
To name a few cases, Inspector Ishfaq has been serving as DSP Security in IG Office, Inspector Pervaiz Butt assumed the charge of DSP Security in DIG Office, Inspector Zaman Bhatti is operating as DSP CTD in Faisalabad and Special Branch’s Inspector Fiaz Hameed has been serving as a DSP for many months now. One of the inspectors, Malik Tahir who had been working as a DSP, has recently been transferred.
Moreover, there are dozens of other instances where junior police officers are continuing to serve as station house officers (SHOs) in various police stations of the city.
Sources in the Police Special Branch told Pakistan Today that promotions of these officers were made on ‘political basis’ or on the recommendations of some ‘influential people’. They said that ‘illegal’ promotions of these officers disturbed the order of seniority in the department, plummeting the performance of the department as a whole.
Sources said that senior officers in the police department denied following the orders of these ‘promoted’ officers, who previously were placed far lower on the ladder. They said that senior officers regarded these ‘illegally’ promoted officials to still be ‘junior’ to them.
Whenever the police high ups are asked about the promoted officers they say that they have only been ‘temporarily promoted to compensate shortage of staff in the department,’ sources report. The high ups say that they have only been given an ‘additional charge’ of the post, but nothing is said when this ‘temporary’ charge would be taken back.
Source alleged that junior officers got promoted by virtue of their ‘connections’ with high ups and if the promotions were not materialized, these officers used their connections to get themselves ‘illegally’ promoted under the garb of ‘additional charge’, while other deserving officers continue to wait in line.
Pakistan Today has learnt that almost one and a half year ago, Special Branch Additional IG Nasir Durrani gave the additional charge of DSP to Inspector Fiaz Hameed, ignoring other deserving senior officials.
Sources claimed that Fiaz was one of the ‘most junior’ officers of the department. Fiaz’s number on the promotion list was around 1,400 and if the promotion was made on seniority basis, it would have taken Fiaz at least 10 to 12 years to get promoted.
Sources in the Special Branch also claimed that Fiaz had connections with a political party which recently appeared on the political canvas of the country. They alleged that Fiaz was also involved in sharing confidential information of the Special Branch, which is the intelligence agency of the Punjab government, with the officials of that particular political party. This claim could not be independently verified despite repeated efforts.
When Pakistan Today asked Special Branch SP Fazal Gulzar about the officer in question, he said that Fiaz had only been given additional charge due to shortage of staff in the department and it was not a case of shoulder promotion.
Meanwhile, several senior officers in the department, including DSP Headquarters Syed Inayat Ullah, DSP Akbar Iqbal, DSP Rana Aslam and DSP Sara Bano are waiting to be given responsibility. Sources said that the trend of giving additional charges to junior officials affected the performance of senior officers who naturally ‘do not like’ to follow the orders of their juniors.