PHOTO: AFP
FAISALABAD: Community policing and reconciliation committees have failed to fulfil their objective amid reported attempts by people involved in criminal activities to become their members.
Community policing was introduced in western countries in the early twentieth century to bring reforms, deal with petty crimes and provide speedy justice with the help of respected members of the society.
Inspired by the community policing in western countries, Prime Minister Imran Khan included it in his programme to improve the police culture and work on it started in late 2018 after he came to power after the elections.
Conciliation committees consisting of eminent persons were set up to promote community policing and to deal with minor issues and disputes.
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Police officials said the reconciliation committees of 41 police stations across the district had been notified and the SPs had been informed about them.
The persons nominated in the committee would play their role along with the area police station SHO for conciliation over petty matters and disputes.
Police officers did not ask for names from MNAs and MPAs from the opposition PML-N while forming the committees.
SP Operation Syed Ali Raza Bukhari said while talking to The Express Tribune that people having a good reputation had been nominated in the conciliation committee, while those against whom cases were registered were not included in them.
Regional Police Officer (RPO) Rifat Mukhtar Raja and CPO Sohail Chaudhry have given instructions to nominate reputable persons from the lists sent by MNAs and MPAs. “By playing their role, they can resolve small issues at the police station level,” he said.
Reportedly, work on police reform was started in all the provinces on the orders of PM Khan. Punjab Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs Raja Basharat revised and amended the Police Ordinance 2002 in this regard.
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Under the initiative, a policy of conciliation committees was prepared for front desk services and to provide speedy justice to the citizens. Rooms were also allotted for conciliation committees in police stations. However, the rooms are still deserted allegedly due to political interests within the reconciliation committees.
The purpose of the committees was to minimise the wastage of citizens' time.
The Code of Criminal Procedure had rules on conciliation committees even before the current government took over.
Attempts were made to carry out this process first through village numberdars and then through union councils, which proved to be futile.
Lists of hundreds of people were sent by MNAs and MPAs of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) for conciliation committees at the police station level to look into petty issues in 41 police stations of Faisalabad.
Police officials said two months ago the ruling party decided to form conciliation committees at the police station level in their constituencies, from where names of nominees were sought from seven MNAs and 11 MPAs from Faisalabad.
The MNAs and MPAs submitted nominations for the committees on their letterheads.
The names were checked on the computer system through their identity cards and it was revealed that many of them had criminal record.
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Reportedly, the police officers handed over the lists sent by the ruling party MNAs and MPAs to the Special Branch for verification.
After two months, the staff of the Special Branch sent their reports on all the persons on the lists, stating that they had received the names of 800 persons, of whom 91 were nominated in murder, gambling, drugs, attempted murder and illegal weapons cases in different police stations.
On this, the high officials did not include these people in the conciliation committees.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 27th, 2020.
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