Fraud cases: ‘Reconciliation committees’ to be set up at police stations

Critics say committees illegal, will increase political interference in police work.

LAHORE:

Senior officers have warned that the City Police’s decision to set up a ‘reconciliation committee’ at each police station to quickly resolve monetary and civil disputes will work only if the committees act transparently and are free of political pressure.

A lawyer has also raised concerns about the legal status of the committees, which are not provided for by the Police Order of 2002.

Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Ahmad Raza Tahir has been saying in meetings with business people that the committees will be made up of local people and will actually help speed up the dispensation of justice.

According to police sources, the police can refer disputes to the committee before or after registering a first information report. The members would be mostly retired public servants and would require clearance from the Special Branch. Sub division police officers have been asked to prepare lists of would-be members in their areas. Both parties would have to consent to the committee’s involvement. The committee would mostly handle fraud cases including cases under Sections 489F (cheque fraud), 420 (cheating), 468 and 471 (forgery) and 406 (criminal breach of trust) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

Superintendent of Police (SP) Shoaib Khurram Janbaz told The Express Tribune that reconciliation committees had been set up in Gujranwala and they had been very successful, helping many people recover millions of rupees. He said that the committees must be completely independent of the police and free of political pressure. The members must have no political affiliation, he added.

He said that the number of members of the committees would depend on the nature of crimes and complaint record of the area. Police would also check that the committee members were actually attending meetings regularly. He said that in Gujranwala, the committees were given a room in each police station and a constable to note down proceedings in every case.

Another SP expressed concerns about the process, saying the committees would only be as good as their members. “The members are being proposed by SHOs [station house officers] and SDPOs, so it’s not hard to imagine what kind of committees they will be,” he said, indicating that he did not trust the police to nominate impartial candidates. “Influential people with political connections will likely be put on the committees,” he added.

An inspector, also speaking on the condition of anonymity, said he believed that the committees would result in more political pressure at police stations.

He said that in Gujranwala, people bribed members of the committees to get favourable decisions.

Advocate Muhammad Azhar Siddique told The Express Tribune that the committees were against the law, as resolving public grievances was the duty of Citizen Police Liaison Committees. He said that statutory amendments were required to set up these other committees.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 11^th, 2011.