LAHORE - As many as 14,000 employees of the Punjab Police have been deprived of technical and dearness allowances they were entitled to under the rules, after the Punjab government raised the basic salaries of the provincial Police Department in 2009. The 'so-called increase has become meaningless for the said 14,000 personnel as the allowances equal to their basic salaries have been deducted by the government, The Nation has learnt. The technical and dearness allowances were subtracted in 2010; a few days after Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif doubled the basic salaries of the police. Earlier, constables and head constables were receiving a dearness allowance of Rs 2,000. The government had maintained that this was for the first time that the basic salary of the police was being doubled and the main objective of this raise in salaries was to boost the morale of the police force against the wave of terrorism. It was also said that 116,000 constables, 17,000 head constables, 12,000 assistant sub-inspectors, 8,000 sub-inspectors and 2,400 inspectors out of 160,000 strength of the Punjab Police would benefit from this move. Insiders said that some hidden hands in the Punjab government had suggested deducting technical and dearness allowances to the CM Punjab. These allowances were initiated during the tenure of ex-CM Punjab Ch Pervaiz Elahi. It may be mentioned that the employees of Telecommunications and Motor Transport departments of the Punjab Police also resented the deduction of allowances. No less than 9,000 employees working in the Telecommunications and Motor Transport departments were shocked to see the governments double standards in the way it increases basic salaries yet deducts allowances reliable sources in the Punjab Police Telecommunications Department said, adding that all of the officers were the victims of this decision, but none of them dared (to) speak over the issue. Some 5,000 low-scale employees are among the victims whose technical allowance has been subtracted, the Punjab Police Motor Transport Department sources maintained. They, however, clarified that the CM did not announce that the salaries would be doubled, adding that the decision of cutting down the allowances was irrational. We have nothing to do with the business of the two parities - PML-N and PML-Q - we are being deprived of allowance(s) that is our basic right, a senior official in Motor Transport Department requesting not to be named said. DIG Telecommunications Zafar Abbas Qureshi refused to comment over the issue. When contacted, Chief Ministers Advisor Senator Pervaiz Rasheed said that he was totally unaware of the matter. I do not know much more about this issue, but I think Provincial Finance Minister Tanvir Ashraf Kaira is the suitable person to respond on this matter, he remarked. Mr Kaira was unavailable for comments.