HYDERABAD: Police not cooperating with safety commissions - Home secretary told
By Our Correspondent
HYDERABAD, Jan 11: A delegation of six chairpersons of the District Public Safety and Police Complaint Commission has complained to Sindh Home Secretary Ghulam Mohammad Mohtaram that the district police officers
are not implementing recommendations forwarded by them.
The delegation comprised Jehangir Adil Rizvi, (Hyderabad), Shafqat Shah (Sukkur), Jam Feroze (Nawabshah), Abdul Rehman Jan Sarhandi (Mirpurkhas), Safdar Jatoi (Shikarpur) and Ghulam Rasool Unnar (Jacobabad).
It was learnt on Tuesday that they had first held a meeting in Karachi at a luncheon hosted by Jam Feroze and discussed problems confronting them during the course of hearing of cases and subsequent recommendations forwarded to the DPOs.
The complaints are not implemented as DPOs initiated their own inquiries on those complaints for their own satisfaction thus killing basic purpose of the commission. Jehangir Adil Rizvi said the delegation urged the home secretary for non-implementation of section 44 (h)(ii) of the Police Order (Amended) 2004 which called for fact-finding inquiry into a complaint through two or more of its members.
This clause allows the team that in case the complaint was found correct then committee should send its report and direct the DPO to suspend defaulting police officer and take departmental action against him in accordance with the rules".
The home secretary was informed that in spite of the provision the DPOs always conducted separate inquiry against policemen and commission's recommendations remained pending in the office.
The delegation also raised the issue of fiscal year's budget and referred to budgetary allocations for commissions in Punjab where they had become more effective than Sindh.
In Hyderabad, the DPSPCC had received only Rs354,100 for the current fiscal year for expenses of salary and allowances. The expenditures of the sanitary staff, miscellaneous expenses and telephone were being borne by the chairperson.
The delegation told the home secretary that the authority of appointing necessary staff should be delegated to commissions' chairperson so that peon, watchman and sweeper could be appointed by them.
The question of honorarium was also raised given the fact that under the Police Order 2002 chairperson was also entitled to it whereas the members had not been paid honoraria despite clear provision in pre-amended version of the Police Order.
They demanded that difference of honoraria should be paid to them. Mr Rizvi said the home secretary assured that they would be provided walkie-talkies and communication had been sent to the PPO.
He said the home secretary referred to his discussion with the Sindh chief minister regarding delegation of powers to appoint staff of the commission and an adviser, who would be an advocate of the high court.
The delegation urged the home secretary to issue a circular in this regard so that RPOs and DPOs could be bound down to hold regular meetings with commissions and then send back their feed-backs to their own higher authorities about progress made in different cases. The delegation will also hold a meeting with Sindh PPO Syed Kamal Shah.
