Punjab Police Inspector General (IGP) Khan Baig has agreed to transfer 204 policemen to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to fill up the vacancies.
The officials would be posted as sub-divisional police officers (SDPOs) to cope with the staff shortage at the agency, an FIA official speaking on the condition of anonymity told The Express Tribune.
He said the decision was made on Friday during a meeting attended by Punjab FIA Director Usman Anwar and Punjab Police Headquarters DIG Muhammad Tahir.
“FIA Director General Ghalib Ali Bandesha had asked Baig to transfer the police officials…The Punjab FIA is required to fill 212 seats with policemen from the Punjab [constables to DSP/ASP] but only eight policemen from the service are currently with the FIA,” he said.
He said the IGP had earlier sent a summary to the chief minister to relax the ban on Punjab Police staff working in federal departments.
Anwar said, “Around 30 per cent of the posts in the agency are vacant… this is affecting our performance especially in dealing with corruption cases.”
He said, “Staff shortage can be gauged from the fact that the agency has only four officials working in Gujrat district, a hub of human trafficking.” The district has over 5,000 policemen.
According to an official document, a copy of which is available with The Express Tribune, 210 posts for the Punjab Federal Investigation Agency are vacant.
These include a director, seven deputy directors, two assistant directors, 11 inspectors, nine legal inspectors, two customs inspectors, 28 male and one fenmale assistant sub-inspector, a head constable, 133 constables and 15 constables/drivers.
Out of the 139 sanctioned ministerial staff 52 posts are vacant.
These are made up of an assistant, two headclerks, 14 stenographers, 18 lower divisional clerks, a driver, two dispatch riders, 11 naib qasids, a gardener and two chowkidars.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 9th, 2014.