Pak IB facing officers drain due to lack of facilities

By Super Admin
|
Google Oneindia News

Islamabad, Jan 14 (ANI): The number of middle ranked officer leaving Pakistan's Intelligence Bureau (IB) is growing day by day as they are desperate for other options like joining the ISI.

There is a growing feeling within the agency that it stands today "no more than a sarkari akhbaar" (government newspaper) with its officers collecting reports from TV and from friends in journalism, said an Islamabad-based Assistant Director at the IB. We simply collect these IR (Information Reports), put them together in the form of a DSR (Daily Situation Report) and forward it to the Prime Minister," he said, adding that journalists are quicker and tend to know more than us anyway.

A grade-17 IB officer told Dawn that one of the reasons why many of the BPS 17 and 18 officials feel disgruntled is because "the actual work we do nowhere matches our expectations in terms of the nature of the work. I'd rather quit and join the ISI if I get the opportunity."

The officer claimed that many of his colleagues were desperate to switch over to other institutions.

A newly appointed Assistant Director said that while he agrees that his actual work nowhere matches what he had expected before joining, he says the monetary factor cannot be ignored.

"On average a grade-17 IB officer gets around Rs 18,000 basic salary. There is a tiny house allowance, which effectively works out to be around Rs 5,000. In contrast the ISI offers lucrative packages even to the civilian recruits. Risk allowance, displacement allowance, impressive house allowance and a car just to name a few things they (ISI) offer."

He cited the case of a fellow Assistant Director who resigned from the agency a few days ago citing major housing issues in the city he was transferred to.

A Deputy Director at the IB claimed that to an extent, the agency had become redundant because of the overlapping of operational domains with the Special Branch and the ISI.

"There is a lot of overlapping of work between the IB and the SB. But we do have a technical edge over the other agencies as our domestic surveillance capabilities are unmatchable," he said. (ANI)

For Daily Alerts
Get Instant News Updates
Enable
x
Notification Settings X
Time Settings
Done
Clear Notification X
Do you want to clear all the notifications from your inbox?
Settings X
X