Police watchdog: K-P abolishes public safety commission

Some 150 employees affected by decision and placed in surplus pool

PESHAWAR: The provincial home and tribal affairs department moved on Monday to abolish the provincial public safety and police complaint commission, placing its staff in surplus pool.

The secretary for the provincial home and tribal affairs department signed a summary last week under which the employees of the commission were directed to report to the surplus pool of the establishment department.

According to the summary, all of the commission’s assets were handed over to the home and tribal affairs department.

An official pointed out that as many as 150 employees, including 25 officers of the Provincial Management Services (PMS) cadre, had been affected by this decision.



The commission was set up under the Police Order of 2002, establishing an oversight entity over the K-P Police.

The K-P Police Act of 2017 gives no protection to the affected staff, it is learnt.

Last December, the provincial home department sent a summary to the chief minister for declaring the directorate of public safety and police complaints commission an attached department of the home department.

The abolition of the commission was initiated because of an observation made by the K-P law department on the summary.

The law department stated that the Police Act of 2017 called for setting up public safety commissions at all provincial and federal levels for which members would be appointed for a three-year term thus the existing commission could not be declared as an attached department.

Referring to the fate of the commission’s permanent staff, an official of the law department said that their department had not advised relegating these employees to the surplus pool.



“We told them (the representatives of the home and tribal affairs department taking up the matter with the law department) to amend the K-P Police Act 2017 for adjusting the existing employees of the commission as staff would be needed on provincial and district levels,” an official seeking anonymity stated.

The official said that under the K-P Police Act, there should be provincial public safety commissions, a capital public safety commission and district safety commissions for which secretariat staff would be needed.

“The existing staff should be adjusted in these commissions,” the official said.

Sources in the K-P home and tribal affairs department said that the K-P government had not established public safety commissions mandated under the K-P Police Act 2017 within a month after its enforcement. The Act has been in force for more than six months.

The employees of the commission assigned to the surplus pool sent a letter to the chief minister, highlighting the issue and pointing out that there was no watchdog to oversee police performance.