Police station with nationwide powers

ISLAMABAD: The federal home ministry has approved the setting up of a unique police station at the federal capital, the jurisdiction of which will be the whole country.  The proposed police station will be called the CID police station and its job will be to arrest terrorists and persons accused of committing serious crimes.

The police station will not have to involve, or the get permission of, local police stations to take the action. It will have sweeping powers to conduct raids and arrest anyone. It will also investigate serious crimes, including kidnapping for ransom and big robberies and thefts, for which an exclusive investigation wing is being set up within the police station.

The federal home minister is expected to make a formal announcement about this in a few days. However, the district administration of Islamabad has already received a formal letter and approved it.

The approval for manning it with 80 police officers and officials has also been given, and a building to house the police station has already been acquired. The station will be equipped with the latest arms and paraphernalia.

Sources told Express that though there are already two “CID police stations” in  Lahore and Karachi, their jurisdictions are limited to their respective districts, whereas this new CID police station will have the authority to take action in any part of the country and against any persons regardless of their place of origin.

Commenting on the move, former chief of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) Brigadier (retd) Imtiaz Ahmed said that “eventually it will be misused to oppress political opponents”. Terrorist activities have been there for more than a decade and the present government has been there for about two-and- a-half years, he said, questioning what prompted the move now.

He also said that if there had been any real information, the local, district or provincial authorities had never hesitated to take action, nor have they shown any resistance or non-cooperation. There is no hindrance in any action against any terrorists or criminals in any part of the country, he said.

The former IB chief was of the opinion that the new concept will not produce any results, nor will it facilitate efforts against terrorists in any way. However, it has the potential of being misused for creating harassment for political opponents. “If you have sound information that there are terrorists, say, in Multan or Mardan or Quetta or Shikarpur, and it is important to take action in the national interest, will the local police not cooperate?” he questioned, adding “it is simply impossible that they refuse; so when all the setup is already there, why the unnecessary new mischievous acts like this or the National Counter-Terrorism Authority? They really make no sense. This is to cover up for the failures of the present government or aimed at political misuse.”

Published in The Express Tribune, July 13^th, 2010.