LAHORE: The shortage of superintendents of police (SPs) and deputy superintendents of police (DSPs) is seriously affecting the performance of the department in crime control.

According to sanctioned official figures, police need a total of 244 Police Service of Pakistan (PSP) officers in the entire province, including one IGP, 11 AIGs, 31 DIGs,84SSPs,107SPsand10ASPs.

Punjab police is facing a shortage of 86 PSPs, -three AIGs, 10 DIGs, 73 SSPs and SPs -and more than 100 DSPs.

A senior police of ficial, on condi-tion of anonymity, told Dawn that 75 posts of senior police ofñcers were lying vacant in the province.

`Punjab police is facing the shortage of PSPs mainly due to two reasons. The first is that the federal government has to convene the promotion board meeting twice a year but after passage of more than oneand-a-half years no meeting has been called that`s why the promotions are pending. The last board meeting was held in May 2015.

`The second reason is the reversion of 30 police officers in out-ofturn promotion case which has aggravated the dearth,` he said.

The official said some senior policeofficers,includingRPOsand DPOs, joined senior management and staff college courses which further worsened the shortages.

He said 30 officers faced reversion after the Supreme Court decision while their petition challenging the verdict is pending for hearing.

`The posts of SPs and DSPs are lying vacant in Lahore, Multan,Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Bahawalpur, Muzaffargarh, Sargodha, Bhakkar, Khushab, Mandi Bahauddin and Rawalpindi.

`Another issue the PSPs are facing in Punjab is that they are being transferred without completion of their tenure,` he said.

The government is not adhering to the tenure policy under the Police Order 2002.

`The Chapter III Constitution and Organisation of the Police, SubSection 15, regarding the posting of city police of ficer and district police officer, states: `(1)-The Provincial Police Of ficer may post a City Police Of ficer for a city district notified as a general police area and the District Police Officer in a district within a general police area 1 [with the approval of] the Government.

(2) The term of office of City Police Officer or District Police Of ficer, as the case may be, shall be three years from the date of his posting. 2[(3) Under exceptional circumstances due to exigency of service oron grounds of misconduct and inefficiency which warrant major penalty under the relevant rules, the City Police Officer or District Police Of ficer may be transferred, with the approval of the Government, before completion of the term of of fice.]` Another police officer, requesting anonymity, said the SPs were being transferred and posted without following the tenure policy.

`The police chief is not following the tenure policy of the SPs and they are transferred within months without any gross misconduct.

An SP, commenting on the issue, said he remained at a post in the provincial capital for six months and did not know why he was transferred without completion of his tenure.

He said the chief minister office issued his transfer orders instead of the police chief.

He said there had been no tenure for any police official, right from the IGP to an SHO. They could be changed anytime even without any cogent professional reason.Nankana has had four DPOs in the last two years and Lahore SSP admin post was changed thrice in less than a year.

Bahawalnagar DPO Shariq Kamal was removed after he raided the outhouse of PML-N MNA. Later, he was cleared of any illegality by a two-member inquiry team.

IGP Mushtaq Sukhera told this reporter that police were following the tenure policy and of ficers were only removed after misconduct.

He said delay in promotion board meeting due to litigation was creating shortage of PSPs officers and some `brilliant` officers retired at lower ranks. `There is no favourtism in the posting of DPOs and SPs in the province. We are determining the seniority of the reverted police officers and they will be appointed soon.

The IG said SPs were being transferred on the recommendation of the DPOs, RPOs and CCPO over failure to deliver the goods.