Spokesperson to the President Senator Farhatullah Babar said that the ASF, a department attached with the Ministry of Defence, had been set up under the ASF Act of 1975.
He said that bill was aimed at removing the disparity in the rank structure of the force, re-designating all officers.
Under the said Act, he said the rank structure specified for the Force included Force Commander, Deputy Director, Assistant Director, Security Officer and Assistant Security Officer. The Force Commander, he said, had now been re-designated as Director-General in BS-20, the Deputy Director in BS-19 as Director in the same grade, Assistant Director currently in BS-18 as Deputy Director in the same pay scale, the Security Officer currently in BS-17 as Assistant Director in the same pay scale and the Assistant Security Officer presently in BS-16 plus Rs150 per month as special pay as Deputy Assistant Director in the same pay scale.
Additionally, the existing position of Deputy Director (Co-ordination), currently in BS-19 plus special pay of Rs400 per month was re-designated as Deputy Director-General in the same pay scale.
The designations of Security Officer and Assistant Security Officer had lost its impact and it was deemed necessary to re-designate these positions and bring them at par with officers of other federal government departments.
He said that there were no financial implications or change in badges of ranks of these officers. Senator Babar said at the time when the amendment bill was being considered in the Senate's Defence Committee last month, it was observed that merely changing the nomenclature was not enough for enhancing the morale of the ASF personnel.
Change of designation also did no justice to these officers without upgrading them when the police officers were upgraded with the passage of time.
Accordingly,the Senate Committee asked the Defence Mnistry to finalis proposals in consultation with the Finance and Establishment divisions for upgrading posts of SOs and ASOs and subsequent elevation of all posts in the ASF within three months. The report on upgrading the Organisation would be submitted before the Senate's Defence Committee next month, he said.