LAHORE, Jan 2: The Police Order 2002 will take a long time in its implementation in the country even after the recent amendments made to it. This was the impression given by several senior government officials, who talked to Dawn on Sunday.
According to them, many important areas of the order have either been deliberately left uncovered or because of natural hurdles which remained there despite the recent amendments to the law.
The National Assembly speaker has nominated elected members of the National Public Safety Commission while the process of selecting six independent members is still under way.
The provincial public safety and complaint commissions are yet to be established while the district public safety commissions have been partially set up in all the provinces. Punjab has 31 of them out of 34 districts, Sindh 12 out of 16 districts, Balochistan 20 out of 26 districts and the NWFP 22 out of 23 districts.
Under Articles 97 and 908 of the law, six members of the federal police complaints authority are to be appointed by the government on the recommendations of the Federal Public Service Commission. But it is still in the process of selecting the members.
The independent prosecution service is yet to be established in the provinces as also under the federal government. In Sindh and the NWFP, separation of investigation from watch and ward has been partially completed and additional IGs (investigation) appointed.
In Balochistan, only Quetta and Jaffarabad districts have separate investigation branches. In Punjab, the separation has been done only in Lahore. The relationship between DPO and district investigation officer, and between SHO and investigation branch of police have been clarified under the recent amendments to the Police Order 2002. But, according to officials, it is still being ignored.
"The implementation of the law requires seriousness from all stakeholders, which is missing. Only the power side of the law has been implemented but those holding it now are still reluctant to allow people to watch their performance," a senior official said.
