KARACHI:
So the joke making the rounds goes something like this: by going back to Police Act 1861, the police force has returned to the 19th century and now all senior officers have been “demoted”.
Jokes aside, former IG Sindh Afzal Shigri, one of the architects of Police Order 2002, says he felt “disgusted” with the Sindh government’s decision to revert to the old law. He was one of four men — Dr Shoaib Suddle, Zulfiqar Qureshi and Dr ZU Khan — who drafted the law after painstakingly working for 18 months at the think tank formed under the National Reconstruction Bureau.
Since Police Order 2002 no more exists, the office of the Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) will no longer stand. Saud Mirza, the current CCPO, would now be known as the Additional Inspector General of Karachi, which is different from the rank of Assistant Inspector General (AIG) — a post that is equivalent to Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP). However, Mirza cautioned that, “[He] would be known as the CCPO until the official notification is issued in this regard by the government.”
Provincial Police Officer Wajid Durrani would simply be known as Inspector General of Police for Sindh. More importantly, the operations and investigation wings that were separated, would be merged. Therefore, the DIG investigations post no longer exists. However, all other zonal DIGs and town SPs in the city are expected to remain the same. “Instead of deputy, the full form of DIG would now be district inspector general,” Mirza said.
“The issue is that Police Order 2002 was a federal law and it can’t be changed by a provincial government by the stroke of a pen,” Shigri explained. What Sindh has done could have immense legal repercussions. Shigri even predicted that the matter could go to court eventually. Such decisions open up a can of worms — what if the 1861 law has certain elements that go against the spirit of the 1971 Constitution of Pakistan? Take the small example of powers of district magistrates given to an officer.
If the present government had a problem with the current law, argued Shigri, it should have drafted a new law in accordance with the standards of the 21st century, instead of reverting to the 19th century.
Others are unhappy with the timing of the change based on the argument that the government wanted to do away with Musharraf-made laws. “Was this government sleeping for more than three years?” spat out another architect of Police Order 2002, who could not be named because of a post he occupies currently. “[If they were so unhappy] they could have created a new law during that period.”
He said the truth was that even Police Order 2002 was never implemented in full. “They picked and chose the clauses which went in their favour.” For example, the Police Complaint Authority to address the public’s misgivings about the force was never formed. Similarly, the public safety commissions that were supposed to involve members of civil society in also overlooking appointments within the force were never implemented. The Sindh government’s decision to disband Police Order 2002 in favor of the old Police Act 1861 has thus irked not only the people who drafted the federal law under Musharraf, but also senior serving police officials who say that at present there is massive confusion in the force.
According to the bill presented in the Sindh Assembly on Wednesday, the Police Act 1861 has been revived as it stood on August 13, 2002, “as if it had never been repealed.” Not a single clause of the Police Order 2002 has been retained. However, all orders, appointments and actions taken under Police Order 2002 would remain in force “until altered, repealed or amended by the Chief Minister.”
The bill almost spells out General Musharraf’s name in its reasons for repealing the Police Order 2002. It says: “The Police Act 1861 was a very elaborate police law but it was repealed...during the unelected government, without taking into confidence the political parties and general public at large.” It went on to allege that the Police Order 2002 had ‘deteriorated’ (sic) the police system and “created serious problems for the general public.”
Published in The Express Tribune, July 14th, 2011.
COMMENTS (2)
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You didn't like the law that was passed by a dictator so you went back to the law passed by a colonial power over a hundered years ago. Of course that's logical.
What do you expect from govt. of PPP or even PML-N? Whether people like it or not President Musharraf was thousand times better then the leaders if these two parties, he made mistakes, big ones, but he was sincere to Pakistan. All his ordinances were never implemented completely or in good spirit. This is the job of Assemblies and senate, to pass and amend laws not to take over the powers to make money.