Different strokes: Police act wrangling shows three heads not better
IGP believes home department changes to draft undermine officers
IGP believes home department changes to draft undermine officers. PHOTO: REUTERS
PESHAWAR:
There is a growing despondency within the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa police with respect to the proposed police reforms. The force believes that, if approved according to its wishes, these reforms could solidify its operational autonomy.
In recent months, there have been three different drafts afloat. These are the police’s draft, the home department’s draft – which amended 50 of the 73 subsections – and the yet to be finalised Cabinet committee’s draft. For the latter, two sittings have been held on the arbitration table.
“The reforms are pretty much part of what the force has been doing in the last decade,” IGP Nasir Durrani told The Express Tribune. “We are trying to make it part of law now”.
However, his scepticism over changes in the draft his department proposed is no secret.
A seven-page document shows that sections 3(e) and 4(d) of the police’s version, which make the force responsible for protecting minorities and their places of worship along with fermenting its role as a force to counter terrorism, have been omitted in the home department’s version.
The role of the counter-terrorism department (CTD) and Elite Force have also been omitted in Section 12 (3). The police’s role as the frontline force battling militancy has not been mentioned in the Police Order 2002 and therefore added recently, states the document. It added the home department not only deleted the role, but failed to show which other force would perform these duties. The IGP believed this “belittled the role of officers of the police department”.
The formalising of a directorate of training and six specialised schools has also been omitted in Section 12 (5), along with promotion and training.
In the public service projects, Police Assistance Lines (PALs) and Police Access Service (PAS), through which the public has been given access to the Central Police Office and can obtain police verification certificates, security clearance certificate, vehicle verification, CNIC verification or report lost items and cases of extortion, have been removed in Section 16 (7).
Even the dispute resolution council (DRC), formalised by the K-P Assembly through an amendment, is absent as proposed in Section 73.
In a section dealing with community policing, the public participation in the Police Liaison Council (PLC) in Section 4(6) has been removed, making it a political body. Meanwhile, the public safety commissions which were meant to be independent forums of external accountability have been made subservient to the home department as stated in Section 62(5).
The present policy of the provincial government, through which it authorised the IGP to make all the operational transfers/postings up to the rank of Additional IGP, has also been revoked.
As per the home department’s draft, the IGP will recommend the names of officers for posting as regional police officers and district police officers to the Provincial Public Safety Commission. The latter will give final approval subject to a procedure that has not been defined in the draft, but left to the rulemaking body.
Under Section 69(5), the power to award punishment has been given to the external body against the standard principles of administration. This undermines the control and command structure of the department.
As there is a dearth of a proper law, Durrani said the department is creating more enemies geometrically. In its final observation, he said the home department’s draft depicted that it wanted to see the force to be under its command and control like the levies or khasadars. Durrani said “any objection to the proposed police reforms act is mala fide”.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 20th, 2016.
There is a growing despondency within the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa police with respect to the proposed police reforms. The force believes that, if approved according to its wishes, these reforms could solidify its operational autonomy.
In recent months, there have been three different drafts afloat. These are the police’s draft, the home department’s draft – which amended 50 of the 73 subsections – and the yet to be finalised Cabinet committee’s draft. For the latter, two sittings have been held on the arbitration table.
“The reforms are pretty much part of what the force has been doing in the last decade,” IGP Nasir Durrani told The Express Tribune. “We are trying to make it part of law now”.
However, his scepticism over changes in the draft his department proposed is no secret.
A seven-page document shows that sections 3(e) and 4(d) of the police’s version, which make the force responsible for protecting minorities and their places of worship along with fermenting its role as a force to counter terrorism, have been omitted in the home department’s version.
The role of the counter-terrorism department (CTD) and Elite Force have also been omitted in Section 12 (3). The police’s role as the frontline force battling militancy has not been mentioned in the Police Order 2002 and therefore added recently, states the document. It added the home department not only deleted the role, but failed to show which other force would perform these duties. The IGP believed this “belittled the role of officers of the police department”.
The formalising of a directorate of training and six specialised schools has also been omitted in Section 12 (5), along with promotion and training.
In the public service projects, Police Assistance Lines (PALs) and Police Access Service (PAS), through which the public has been given access to the Central Police Office and can obtain police verification certificates, security clearance certificate, vehicle verification, CNIC verification or report lost items and cases of extortion, have been removed in Section 16 (7).
Even the dispute resolution council (DRC), formalised by the K-P Assembly through an amendment, is absent as proposed in Section 73.
In a section dealing with community policing, the public participation in the Police Liaison Council (PLC) in Section 4(6) has been removed, making it a political body. Meanwhile, the public safety commissions which were meant to be independent forums of external accountability have been made subservient to the home department as stated in Section 62(5).
The present policy of the provincial government, through which it authorised the IGP to make all the operational transfers/postings up to the rank of Additional IGP, has also been revoked.
As per the home department’s draft, the IGP will recommend the names of officers for posting as regional police officers and district police officers to the Provincial Public Safety Commission. The latter will give final approval subject to a procedure that has not been defined in the draft, but left to the rulemaking body.
Under Section 69(5), the power to award punishment has been given to the external body against the standard principles of administration. This undermines the control and command structure of the department.
As there is a dearth of a proper law, Durrani said the department is creating more enemies geometrically. In its final observation, he said the home department’s draft depicted that it wanted to see the force to be under its command and control like the levies or khasadars. Durrani said “any objection to the proposed police reforms act is mala fide”.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 20th, 2016.