Teams formed to address drugs issue in Balochistan

Steering committee okays Delivery Management Information System

QUETTA: Provincial Home Affairs Secretary Haider Ali Secko has said a dedicated ‘delivery unit’ and ‘technical working groups’ have been established to review progress on drug elimination efforts.

“The progress will be reviewed on the basis of credible data and evidence to be collected by implementing institutions of the criminal justice system,” said the home secretary while briefing a meeting of the Steering Committee convened by the Home Department on Friday.

Constituted as part of the Rule of Law Roadmap, the committee was mandated to derive evidence-based reform initiatives to ensure institutional strengthening of the police, prosecution, prisons, parole, and probation departments.

Balochistan is currently implementing a cabinet-approved 'Rule of Law Roadmap' developed by its criminal justice institutions in collaboration with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). The roadmap system requires cross-institutional collaboration among rule of law stakeholders to address systemic challenges facing the citizens and the criminal justice institutions in eliminating the menace of drugs in the province.

The meeting was held to endorse departmental action plans put forward by stakeholders of the criminal justice system to curb drugs.

Secko presented an overview of the roadmap process, including progress update, ongoing challenges and ways forward.

During the meeting, the steering committee gave a go-ahead for the establishment of a Delivery Management Information System to serve as a collaborative platform for capturing data against targets and indicators of action plans.

In this regard, a comprehensive presentation was made to share the findings of an institutional assessment regarding the design of the data system under consideration.

Taking stock of ongoing reform efforts aimed at improving justice delivery in the province, Home Minister Mir Zia Langove said, “Rule of law is of critical importance to development outcomes and the government's continuous support for revamping the criminal justice system is evident from its unflinching resolve to uphold the rule of law.”

As a focal point to oversee and coordinate the implementation of the roadmap, the Home Affairs Department organised a stock-taking session for steering committee members, who unanimously appraised actions plans before according to formal approval. The action plans for rule of law reforms consist of targeted interventions to be carried out within a specific timeframe, along with Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

While endorsing the action plans, the steering committee urged participating institutions to start collecting data in a structured and systematic manner so that progress may be effectively reported against the set targets.

On the occasion, UNODC Criminal Justice Adviser Jouhaida Hanano said, “The steering committee's role is of crucial importance as it provides a platform to regularly discuss strategic-level matters, including finding ways to address bottlenecks.”

She said what Balochistan was doing was unique as compared to other provinces' progress in implementation of the rule of law reforms. “Balochistan is clearly taking the lead in establishing a holistic system for implementation, management and monitoring of rule of law reforms. In other words, Balochistan is setting an example for other provinces as to what works and what does not,” she said.

The adviser noted that the province had achieved significant milestones in this respect, including recruitment of key personnel, finalisation of PC 1, etc.

Stressing the need to sustain reform momentum, she assured the committee of continuous technical assistance from UNODC, a long-standing and trusted partner of the government of Balochistan.

Alluding to potential pitfalls, Hanano said it might not be fully clear where “we were going with these reform efforts”, but what was encouraging were the promising and quite visible signs in terms of taking matters forward in a coordinated manner.

“It is no small achievement that institutions have now set targets and KPIs for themselves,” she said. “However, the real challenge is in finding out how much we are succeeding: and that will require credible data collection.”

The adviser also talked about UNODC's upcoming support measures which included targeted but sustainable capacity building of delivery unit staff and technical working group members.

The objective of capacity development work was to assist rule of law institutions in delivering sustainable results in an informed manner. 

Published in The Express Tribune, September 21^st, 2019.