Countering terrorism: PSP team to meet IGP to discuss ATF matters

The PSP officers’ association had previously expressed reservations about the way the new force was being established with some alleging that the IGP had not conveyed their problems with the proposed structure of the Anti Terrorism Force to the chief minister. The PSP had also tried to schedule meetings with the chief minister to apprise him of their concerns. A police officer privy to the matter told The Express Tribune that the chief minister had first scheduled meetings for January 5, 12 and 19, but later cancelled all of them owing to other business.

However, another senior member of the delegation said that the PSP had decided to approach the IGP instead of the chief minister as that would have estranged the IGP office.

A senior police officer said the chief minister had announced, a month back, that the ATF would work under the IGP. However, recent developments pointed towards the opposite, he said. Several senior officers discussed the matter with the prime minister, who then told them that he would take up the issue with the Punjab government. While the government had assured the officers that the ATF would be commanded by a police officer of BS-21, it did not allay the PSP’s reservations with respect to whether or not the force would function under the IGP’s office.

The officer said placing the new 4,500-strong force under a PSP officer was insufficient if the force was attached to the Home Department in terms of financial and administrative measures.

He said the PSP officers had decided to seek written assurances from the chief secretary and the home and law secretaries that the force would not be subsumed in the Home Department.

The officer said they would ask the IGP to request the chief minister not to take decisions that would demoralise the police, especially amidst terrorism threats in the province.

The structure

A concept paper submitted and approved by the chief minister in December, 2013, stated that the new Anti Terrorism Force would be developed to combat the growing challenges of terrorism in the country. The force would have adequate capacity for intelligence gathering, targeted operations, investigations and analysis.

An official from the chief minister’s secretariat said it was unfortunate that some PSP officers had portrayed the establishment of the ATF as a “war on the Pakistan Administrative Services”.

According to the paper, the government will spend Rs7 billion on the establishment of the ATF. No inductions from the PAS or any federal or provincial civil services [apart from the PSP] would be made in the new force.

The official said the force will be headed by a director general, inducted from the PSP cadre on deputation, but will be financially and administratively attached to the Home Department.

Personnel for the new force will be hired from three sources: fresh recruitments, in-service police officers [for leadership positions, investigation and administration on deputation] and retired army officers [for intelligence and special operations], he said.

Counter Terrorism Department upgraded

The CTD was established in 2010 under the Punjab Police with 2,800 to 3,000 in-service police personnel. It was provided a separate budget and set up 10 police stations to handle terrorism suspects and conduct investigations.

However, almost 50 per cent of the posts in the CTD remained vacant and the department came to be considered a dumping ground for officials considered incompetent or who could not get a position in district police, the official said.

The Home Department had proposed a new force considering the CTD’s lacklustre performance. The PSP expressed apprehensions that the Special Branch and the Elite Force, presently under the Punjab Police, would now work under the Home Department.

A senior official of the Home Department told The Express Tribune that the chief minister had been informed that the Special Branch would not be part of the ATF. Around 500 officials from the Elite Force would be hired for two years. He said the Home Department wanted to establish the new force as a department attached to it and headed by a DG and mostly retired army officers. The ATF would not be part of regular law enforcement operations…it would be a specialised force with special operational capacities, he said.

The new force will establish field units at the district level, headed by assistant/deputy directors, regional headquarters will be headed by additional directors and the provincial headquarter by a director general in BS-20 or 21.

The Home Department had earlier advertised various posts for the new force and 48,600 people in the province applied for 500 posts of corporals. Out of them, 41,000 were found eligible for physical and medical tests. As many as 2,900 candidates have passed the written test and now will appear for the psychological test and final selection.

The chief minister has also approved the hiring of 11 retired officers out of 470 who applied for the posts advertised on December 3, 2013.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 25^th, 2014.