Despite passage of two years, the policemen performing duty in high-risk zones have not received high-risk allowance announced by the Sindh government, Pakistan Today reliably learnt on Friday.
In 2014, the provincial government notified 16 highly-volatile police stations and announced to issue an allowance to encourage the cops deployed in terrorism-hit police posts. However, the police officials, who are deployed at the city’s sensitive police stations, are yet to get a single penny on this account.
The Sindh government had decided that police officers deployed at SITE-A police station, Pak Colony police station, Orangi Town police station, Peerabad, police station, Pakistan Bazaar police station, Mominabad police station, Quaidabad police station and 10 other stations would receive an extra amount as they work in high-risk zones.
As per the announcement, one SSP, two SPs, eight DSPs, 25 police inspectors, 50 sub-inspectors, 100 ASIs, 300 head constables and 1,514 constables to have get extra allowance in salaries.
The allowance would increase an SSP’s salary by Rs 90,000 while an SP will get an additional Rs 70,000. Similarly, a DSP rank officer will get Rs 50,000 as allowance while a police inspector will receive Rs 30,000, a sub-inspector will get Rs 20,000, an ASI should receive Rs 15,000, head constables to get Rs 12,000 and constables will receive Rs 10,000.
The officials of sensitive police station raised this issue with the department last year. They were told that the allowance has been approved by the police department and the government but has been delayed due to the upcoming budget. The provincial government also pledged that the cops would get their allowance soon and would be paid from the back date.
“I am deployed at Peerabad police station since last five months, but I have not received a single installment of the said allowance,” SHO Inspector Ayaz Barohi said. Quaidabad police station SHO Muhammad Ali claimed that he did not receive high-risk allowance so far. He maintained that he and his team were rewarded by the department for action against militants, but they did not receive any allowance.
Mominabad police station, which was also declared high-risk zone by the provincial government, was targeted twice by the militants with the help of improvised-explosive device (IED) in February 2014. At least five cops were injured in the two blasts. After few months, the militants placed another IED in the premises of police station in June 2014, but it was defused by the bomb disposal squad.
When contacted the cops deployed in Mominabad police station, they claimed that they had not been paid the allocated allowance yet. Station’s duty officer claimed that he was posted at Mominabad police station five months ago and was told that he would get high-risk allowance five months. But, according to him, he did not receive a single installment as yet.
Sindh Inspector General (IG) Ghulam Haider Jamali, while talking to this scribe, claimed that he had no idea whether the cops deployed at high-risk zones were paid the allowance or not. “I remembered that the provincial government had announced high-risk allowance for the staffers of 16 highly-volatile police stations in the city, but, according to him, he was not sure that they were paid or not.
“If the government announced allowance then the cops must receive the amount,” Sindh IG maintained. Responding to a question, he said the Additional Inspector General (AIG) Karachi would be the appropriate person to respond that why the allowance could not be issued.
AIG Karachi Mushtaq Mehar was not available for version.
