LAHORE, Aug 20: The second tranche of Asian Development Bank’s loan is reportedly the factor behind police reforms provinces are being forced to implement by Sept 30 despite their reluctance.

Sources told Dawn on Wednesday that the federal government had negotiated a loan of several million dollars with the ADB, receiving its first tranche before the induction of the political government.

The federal government now wanted the implementation of the part of the Police Order which was non-binding on the provinces because of the conditionalities it had agreed to while negotiating the loan, the sources claimed.

They said the provinces had been expressing their reservations about the implementation of the non-binding portion of the law but were now implementing them under instructions by the federal government.

The sources said the provinces had already implemented the binding clauses of the law pertaining to the transfer of the financial and administrative powers to the IGP and the status of the ex-officio secretary of the provincial government to him.

The part of the law which the federal government now wanted the provinces to implement related to the constitution of voluntary bodies which were not mandatory, the sources claimed.

They said according to the Police Order the voluntary bodies, including public safety commissions, a police complaint authority, a criminal justice coordination committee and self-financed citizen-police liaison committees “may be formed as far as practicable.”

They said the provincial governments had been reluctant to form the committees because of their overlapping functions and in anticipation of the problems to be faced by the district police officers and even the IGPs in independently running their offices.

“If these committees are formed, the main job of the DPOs will be to answer the calls from these committees, having little time for his actual job,” the sources claimed.

They claimed that the police too would not want full implementation of the Police Order as it would cripple them. Similarly, it was also being felt that with the full implementation the police would go out of the hands of the chief minister or, for that matter, the governor which no-one would like.

“Police were vigorously demanding total administrative and financial powers for the IGP in the past. And since these have been granted, there has been no move for the implementation of the remaining part of the law for the same reasons,” the sources claimed.

Right now the focus of the reforms was the constitution of the committees which the police and the political governments had been reluctant to adopt. And if they were formed, it would require a political will to make them fully functional.

“So far as the ground reality is concerned, no DPO will ever like the committees to be fully functional and powerful than his office,” the sources claimed.

In the Punjab, only district safety commissions have been constituted and these too are missing in three districts, including Lahore. The provincial safety commission has not as yet been notified as is the case with the federal safety commission.