LAHORE: The provincial government has approved an honorarium for five deputy commissioners (DCs) serving in the province under a scheme to encourage the field officers evaluated on the basis of the Key Performance Indicators (KPI), while ignoring the police officers in the same rank for this incentive, sparking a heated debate on the `discriminatory` decision.

Many officers of the Police Service of Pakistan (PSP), blame it on their `rival` Pakistan Administrative Service (PAS) that has been dominating the Punjab Chief Minister Secretariat, while some others accused the police high-ups of not fighting their case.

The PSP officers, contacted by Dawn, allege that the PAS officers have always been securing financial and other incentives from the government `for beingclose to the chief minister`.

The cash reward was announced by Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz for the DCs under a scheme which was launched to evaluate the performance of the field officers of the same rank belonging to the both PAS and PSP services.

A senior official told Dawn the chief minister approved the honorarium after Chief Secretary (CS) Zahid Akhtar Zaman and Inspector General of Police (IGP) Dr Usman Anwar sent performance reports of their respective officers, posted in districts, for the month of December. Both reports were prepared after evaluating the field officers on the basis of the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) introduced by Maryam Nawaz`s government to improve the service delivery in the province.

The cash reward has been announced for Bahawalngar DC Zulfiqar Ahmad Bhoon, Layyah DC Ameera Baidar, PakpatanDC Sadia Mehr, Mianwali DC Khalid Javed Goraya and Murree DC Agha Zaheer Abbas Sherazi. These officers were picked for the reward from amongst DCs of all the 36 districts ofthe province.

`Chief Minister Punjab has been pleased to approve honorarium equivalent to two-month basic pay in favour of these (above mentioned) officers, reads a notification issued by the Service and General Administration Department (S&GAD).

The official said what irks the PSP officers posted in districts is that none of them was found worthy of the incentive given to the DCs, despite some officers securing over 80 percent marks out of 100, that was almost equal to those obtained by the DCs.

The police officers who were declared high achievers from amongst the heads of 36 districts included Gujranwala City Police Officer (CPO) RanaAyyaz Saleem, Sahiwal`s then DPO Faisal Shahzad and Vehari DPO Mansoor Aman. As per the performance reports, these officers have been securing top positions consecutively for the last three months. Similarly, Kasur DPO Esa Sukhera also obtained more than 80 marks in December.

`Leaving the cash award aside, it is tantamount to disrespect to the PSP officers. It also shows that thethe chief commander of the provincial police failed to fight the case of his officers, ` a police officer regretted. He asked that if the performance evaluation scheme was introduced for the field officers belonging to both services, why one of these was `discriminated against?` Another police officer criticised the senior leadership of Punjab police for not properly pleading their case at the CM secretariat. He also blamed it on the PAS officers who have beenoccupying most of the prime positions at the CM Secretariat, deploring that no such effort had been made by the PSP officers.

`To my knowledge, the field officers in-question are also paying the cost of the internal politics, lobbying and grouping in the Punjab police`s higher hierarchy,` the officer claimed.

He alleged that a powerful lobby comprising some senior police officers was `ruling the Punjab police` and the field officers ignored for the CM`s incentive were not in good books of that clique.

He also alleged that the Central Police Office (CPO) did not pursue the case of the officers ignored for the incentive at the CM secretariat, declaring it one of the main reasons for the `discrimination`.

When contacted, Punjab Inspector General of Police (IGP) Dr Usman Anwar said that he has called a meeting to discuss the issue of the KPIs.