Plan to strengthen Levies approved
ISLAMABAD: The government has decided to strengthen the paramilitary Levies force in the tribal areas in order to improve its capability as an important component of the war machine against militancy and to enable it to take over as a frontline force for policing and security after the army is withdrawn from the region.
President Asif Ali Zardari approved on Wednesday a plan for expansion, training, provision of weapons and equipment and creation of a regular service structure for the Levies.
“The anti-militancy war is a huge national effort and calls for strengthening and upgrading all its components,” he said at a meeting where a presentation was given on the plan.
Presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar told journalists that over Rs491 million had been given as supplementary grant to the Levies, increasing the current year’s allocation by three times. He said that Rs1.5 billion would be spent on the force over the next two years.
Of the increased allocation for this year, over Rs200 million will be spent on creating new posts in the federally and provincially administered tribal areas. Another Rs70 million will be spent on upgrading Levies posts in Fata, NWFP’s Pata and Balochistan.
The spokesman said the president had approved steps to improve the pay scales, raise new units, provide training, weapons, transport facilities and communications equipment and introduce a proper service structure for the force to give incentives to its personnel.
The post of subedar major of Levies has been upgraded from BS-9 and 11 to BS-16, subedar from BS-7 to BS-13 and naib subedar BS-5 to BS-11. The pay scales of sepoy, lance-naik, naik and havaldar have also been raised.
The new scales will result in an increase in the monthly salary of a Levies sepoy of over Rs1,400 and that of a subedar major by nearly Rs3,500, excluding allowances.
There will be a separate directorate general of federal Levies. There are more than 17,500 personnel in the force.
Minister for States and Frontier Regions Najmuddin Khan informed the meeting nearly 100 Levies personnel had lost their lives and 40 others injured in the war against terror over the past four years.
He said training and upgrading programme for the force had been approved by the late Benazir Bhutto during her second term as prime minister but no progress had been made thus far.
The government had ordered steps to implement the plan in June last year.
Source: Dawn
Date:2/18/2010
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