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LAHORE, Feb 24: The Police Order 2002 may be changed in the light of provincial governments’ suggestions and recommendations which will come under discussion at a conference on the said law to be held in Islamabad next month.
“We have asked four provinces to give their input on the law to improve it. Their recommendations would be discussed at a conference in March to formulate a strategy for improving the law and order situation in the country. If the federal and the provincial governments felt that the law needs to be changed, we would amend it,” Interior Ninister Faisal Saleh Hayat told businessmen at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Monday. LCCI president Yawar Irfan Khan chaired the meeting.
The new police order was put in place by the previous military regime shortly before the new elected government was inducted into power to replace the old Police Act of 1886.
“It is a prerogative of the prime minister to have a say (in the police affairs) because he would be answerable to the people of the country. So if we feel that the new law needs to be made responsive to the requirements of society, we would change it,” the minister said.
He said Public Safety Commissions would also be set up in order to create a system of checks and balances, improve the law and order situation, and put in place an institutional framework to improve policing in the country.
KARACHI KILLINGS: Terming the killing of nine people in Karachi last weekend an incident of terrorism, the minister said it was a deliberate attempt to destabilize society. But, he said, the government had means and conviction to go after the criminals.
He was confident that the Karachi police would soon be able to arrest the culprits. “We have told the Karachi police to ensure the maintenance of peace in that city because it is crucial for doing business in this country. I’m confident that the police would successfully trace the culprits in the near future as they did in other high-profile cases involving foreign citizens.”
However, Mr Hayat defended the performance of his ministry since the change in the government, saying the law and order situation in the country had fairly been satisfactory during the last three months barring a few such isolated incidents as the Karachi killings last week. “There has been a marked decline in the acts of terrorism and murders since November last year and substantial improvement in the law and order situation.” Defending the military regime’s decision to join the US-led international coalition against the terrorists, he said the present government was following the same policy and strengthening it because it was in its own self-interest. “Everybody knows that terrorism has eaten into our very socio-economic, political and cultural fabric. We need to continue this policy. Besides, we don’t have any intention to become international pariahs and outcast (by staying away from the international war on terrorism).”
He said certain sections of society had been critical of this policy and voicing their disapproval through national media, alleging that Pakistan was fighting a proxy war for other powers. “We have no intention of putting curbs on the freedom of expression and association and are ready to pay the political price for our future generations. However, we hope that a balance would be maintained on this and other issues concerning the country.”
ECL: On the issue of exit control list, Mr Hayat said the previous regime had its own policy and put thousands of people on the list. But, he said, his ministry did not put anyone on the ECL on its own.
“The names are added to the list only when referred to us by some other agency. Only those businessmen have been put on the ECL whose names have been referred to us by the central bank on account of bank default or financial irregularities,” he said.
However, he added, he had been very liberal in relaxing the ban and allowing people with their names on the ECL to travel abroad. “I’m pleased that nobody has misused the relaxation.”
ID CARDS & TRAVEL DOCUMENTS: The minister said the government was about to launch a Rs3 billion project to provide the people “machine readable, digital passports” in order to restore the dignity of Pakistan’s travel documents. He said a consultant had already been appointed and told to start producing new passports in 12 months after the award of the contract. The new passports would help the government prevent issuance and misuse of the document by the aliens involved in illicit activities and tarnishing the image of Pakistan the world over.
He said the government had also installed a computer system at the airports to develop a database of people travelling into and out of the country. It would also help stop human trafficking from the country.
The minister also defended the performance of Nadra, saying the agency was helping the country a reliable, computerized database of citizens. He said the agency was performing well in spite of handicaps. He said Nadra was facing difficulties in delivering the new ID cards to the people in the remote areas.
“Now I have told Nadra to develop some kind of mechanism to deliver the ID cards to people living in the remote areas.” He said some 3.5 million cards could not be delivered to the residents of the remote areas.
FIA: The minister said he had instructed the FIA authorities to man the immigration counters with women because they were more polite and less vulnerable to temptations than their male colleagues.
He said the government had instructed its embassies and missions abroad to defend innocent Pakistanis arrested abroad on the charges of terrorism. He said Pakistanis arrested in Kenya and Italy had been freed because their authorities failed to prove even a minor charge of violation of their immigration laws against them.
