May 28, 2002	Tuesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 15,1423

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ISLAMABAD, May 27: The Ministry of Law has disputed the jurisdiction of National Reconstruction Bureau (NRB) to promulgate the Police Ordinance 2002 on the grounds that the Constitution and the Supreme Court judgments have designated it as a subject falling within the Provincial Legislative field, documents available with Dawn reveal.

The objection, documents show, was filed after the NRB overruled the arguments advanced by all the four provincial governments that law and order was a provincial subject.

Earlier, the NRB had bypassed the law ministry to present the ordinance for approval before the cabinet on March 20 without vetting.

However, following an objection by the governors and the law ministry, President Musharraf directed the NRB to once again solicit the comments of the provincial governments and the relevant ministries and submit the ordinance vetted by the law ministry before cabinet in a month’s time.

The Bureau has reinvited provinces’ comments on the ordinance, an NRB official said.

According to the law ministry documents, only the provincial assemblies are competent to legislate on the police subject. The Centre can only legislate on such matters with respect to Islamabad Capital territory and as regards the provinces, necessary legislation can be made on the subject by the provinces, the documents reveal.

To support the argument, the law ministry cited various amendments made by the respective provincial governments in the police law from time to time.

Citing the ruling of the Supreme Court as authority that police is a provincial subject, the law ministry said the Supreme Court vide PLD 1985, SC159 at page 178 laid down that “Police Act is a Provincial Act by reason of the subject, police being within the competence of the Provincial Legislature.”

Tracing the constitutional history, the law ministry observed that in the 1956 Constitution, the subject of police found mentioned in Article 3 of the Provincial List of the Fifth Schedule of the said Constitution.

The 1962 Constitution designated police as a provincial subject and the Police Act continued as provincial law by virtue of Article 225.

In the interim Constitution 1972, the police was enumerated as the provincial subject in entry 3 of List-II of the Provincial Legislative List of the Fourth Schedule of the Constitution.

Under Article 268 of the 1973 Constitution, the Police Act continued to be in force as an existing law falling in the Provincial Legislative List by virtue of Article 268(1) of the Constitution, the law ministry observed.

The NRB, sources said, has been rejecting the objections of encroachment on provincial autonomy by advancing the argument that Police Ordinance 2002 would be a federal law, mandated by the Provisional Constitutional Order 1999.