04 December 2004	Saturday	21 Shawwal 1425

PESHAWAR, Dec 3: The provincial coordination committee of District Public Safety Commissions on Friday called for restoration of powers of the Justice of Peace to commission members.

The committee expressed concern over withdrawal of the powers through amendments to the Police Order, 2002, under an ordinance promulgated on Nov 25. The meeting, chaired by provincial chairman of the committee Attaullah Khan, discussed the amendments and other problems faced by the commissions in the province.

Participants from various districts regretted that despite repeated requests, the provincial and federal governments had not done anything to solve their problems.

The meeting adopted several recommendations and decided to raise the points in the forthcoming meeting of the National Coordination Committee of the DPSCs to be held next week in Islamabad.

Members said that despite formation of the DPSCs in all districts, except Peshawar, Tank and Bannu, the smooth functioning of these commissions had been impeded by non-cooperative attitude of senior police officers and non-availability of funds and other resources.

Briefing newsmen after the meeting, Attaullah Khan said that because of the deletion of the Sub-Section 5 of Section 5 of the Police Order, 2002, DPSC members no longer enjoyed the powers of the Justice of Peace.

The Justice of Peace enjoyed numerous powers under Section 22-A and 22-B of the Criminal Procedure Code, including taking action in case of non-registration of an FIR by police.

He said that last year, they had suggested that the powers of the Justice of Peace should only be assigned to those members of the commissions who had experience in legal matters, but the government had deleted the entire section.

Mr Khan said that Sub-Section h(2) of Section 44 of the Police Order had also been amended. Previously, the DPSCs were empowered to conduct a fact-finding inquiry and if a complaint was found to be correct, the commission could direct the district police officer to suspend a defaulting police officer. Now a police officer cannot be suspended because of the amendment.

The committee, he said, urged the government to restore the DPSC powers to suspend defaulting police officers. Mr Khan also highlighted some positive aspects of the amendment.

"The commission has now been assigned powers of a civil court under the Civil Procedure Code in summoning persons, record and examination of witnesses," he said, adding that it would help provide relief to aggrieved persons.

The committee also discussed non-compliance of orders by police in various cases. The meeting suggested that amendments should be made in sections 155, 156 and 157 of the Police Order, 2002, and police officers who did not cooperate should be penalized.

Mr Khan stated that the federal government had released funds to provinces for the DPSC, but the provincial government had not made the funds available. He said that an NRB consultant, Dr Z.U. Khan, was the architect of the Police Order and he had taken a firm stand against the amendments on the pressure of the provincial government. He said that recently he had left the NRB.

The committee requested the president and the chairman of the NRB to retain the services of Dr Khan because his services would be helpful in the implementation of the Police Order.