President gives assent to Airport Security Force (Amendment) bill

KARACHI: President Asif Ali Zardari on Sunday, on the advice of Prime Minister, assented to Airports Security Force (Amendment) Bill 2012.

The Airports Security Force (Amendment) Bill 2012 was passed by National Assembly on 3rd September 2012 and by Senate on 16th November 2012.

Spokesperson to the President Senator Farhatullah Babar said that the ASF is an attached department of the Ministry of Defence which was set up under the ASF Act 1975.

The rank structure specified for the Force under the said Act included Force Commander, Deputy Director, Assistant Director, Security Officer and Assistant Security Officer, he said.

However, he said, there was a great disparity between the rank structure of ASF as compared with other federal agencies like the FIA, ANF Coast Guards etc. The amendments to the Act of 1975 seek to remove the disparity by re-designating all the officers of the Force.

Thus the Force Commander in BS 20 is re-designated as Director General in BS 20, the Deputy Director in BS 19 as Director in the same grade, Assistant Director presently in BS 18 as Deputy Director in the same pay scale, the Security Officer presently in BS 17 as Assistant Director in the same pay scale and the Assistant Security Officer presently in BS 16 plus Rs 150 pm as special pay as Deputy Assistant Director in the same pay scale.

Additionally the existing position of Deputy Director (Coord) presently in BS 19 plus special pay of Rs 400 pm has been re- designated as Deputy Director General in the same pay scale, through the amendment in the Act.

The designations of Security Officer and Assistant Security Officer had lost its impact and it was considered necessary to re- designate these positions and bring them at par with officers of other departments of the federal government.

He said that there are no financial implications or change in the badges of ranks of these officers.

Senator Farhatullah Babar said at the time of the consideration of the Amendment Bill in the Senate Defence Committee last month it was also observed that merely changing the nomenclature of the SOs and ASOs was not enough for enhancing the morale of the ASF personnel who were the backbone of the Force.

Change of designation also did no justice to these officers who were denied up-gradation when the police officers were up-graded with the passage of time and as a consequence these officers of the Force should also have been upgraded.

Accordingly the Senate Defence Committee asked the Defence ministry to finalize proposals in consultation with the Finance and Establishment divisions for the up-gradation of the posts of SOs and ASOs as well as consequential up-gradation of all posts in the ASF within three months.

The report on the upgradation of the Organization is due to be submitted to the Senate Defence Committee later next month, he said.