8 April 2005	Friday	28 Safar 1426

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LAHORE, April 7: The Punjab government has failed to change the thana culture despite its best intentions, and all efforts to achieve the target have floundered at the implementation stage. This was stated by Muhammad Ahmad Khan, the parliamentary secretary for law and local government, while depicting the law and order situation during a discussion in the Punjab Assembly.

He said the government had diverted the best of its fiscal and legal resources to improve the police department, but had failed to make any difference to their performance.

“The police set-up remains rigid and investigation methods primitive in spite of repeated efforts by the government to change them,” he said.

Moreover, the SHOs still enjoyed immense power and an elected representative could not interfere in their working. The situation, he lamented, had not changed in the last 56 years.

He said the police had refused to listen to me on several occasions and even threats of talking to their provincial chief did not work. “I intended to bring a privilege motion against the police, but avoided it only to save the government from embarrassment,” he claimed.

The parliamentary secretary claimed that until the police were put under an elected representative at the district level, the situation would remain the same. “If elected people can run assemblies and other state institutions, they can certainly run police also,” he said.

Taking lead from the secretary, Rana Aftab of the PPP also mounted an attack on the provincial government for its failure to bridle police.

He said: “Trouble also stems from legal complications. Law and order is a provincial subject, but the Punjab Assembly cannot change the Police Act. It has been kept out of a law, which it is supposed to implement. Most of its problems flow from this anomaly.”

Rashid Ahmad Bhatti, another member from the treasury benches, also debated the police performance and wanted to bring them under elected people. “Police ask us to refrain from interfering in their matter as if we have come from any other country,” he said.

He said it was still to be realized that elected representatives were the masters and police was only a department of the state. “How can it defy elected members of parliament,” he wondered. Mr Bhatti said the police department had outlived its utility. Its training and organization were dictated by acts as old as 1860, 1890 and 1935. “Colonial masters created police to keep control over subjects, and police are still to change that mindset,” he said.

PML-N’s Sheikh Riaz pointed out that the Minar-i-Pakistan, which should represent our national glory, was being used by the desperate people to commit suicides. It was because of wrong policies of the government, he said.

During the last three years, over 2,700 people had committed suicides if the recent report of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan was to be believed, he said.

“This is the outcome of ‘prudent policies’ of the president who the government extols tirelessly,” he said sarcastically.

Moreover, he said, price hike during the last five years was much higher than it was in the last 55 years. The situation, if allowed to continue, would soon spin out of hand and drift the country towards chaos, he warned.

Opposition member Mujahid Ali was of the opinion that agencies make or break government in Pakistan, and most of them were not accountable to people.

He said the district governments did not have any control over police or lawlessness. The provincial government was equally helpless, he said, asking as to who should be blamed for the situation.

marathon: The Punjab law minister claimed on Thursday that out of the 43 people arrested in Gujranwala for disrupting the mini-marathon, as many as 38 belonged to the NWFP, showing that they were brought from outside to orchestrate the attack.

Only one of them belonged to Gujrat, one to Sialkot and three to Gujranwala. The rest of them were from tribal agencies like Mehmand, Bajaur, Tank and Swabi, he said.

It showed that the attack was organized by the MMA and the manpower brought from outside, he said, adding they had been booked under 186, 149, 148, 427, 324, 353 and 435 PC.

The opposition, however, thought that the government was registering a case against every pathan found in Gujranwala to prove its version. They had failed to realize that even Qazi Hamidullah, the MMA leader himself, belonged to the NWFP.

They were students of seminaries and belonged to Gujranwala, it said.

Mr Sanaullah said earlier the government had claimed that over 700 people attacked the rally. Now, it had given only 40 names, who belonged to other cities. That means, the rest of over 650 students belonged to Gujranwala and they were protesting against vulgarity in the city, he said.

WHEAT EXPORT: The Punjab government exported wheat at a rate of $104.40 to $133.38 per ton through the Trading Corporation of Pakistan in 2002-03.

Parliamentary Secretary for Food Dr Farrukh Javed told the House while responding to questions by the members in the absence of food minister Chaudhry Iqbal.

It came to $4.176 to $5.335 per 40kg and the government spent Rs118 per 40kg on the export. Of the cost, the federal government had to bear 60 per cent of the charges, he said. In 2003-04, no wheat was exported.

During the last two years, the Punjab procured 2.8 million tons and 2.4 million tons.

Answering another question, he said the Punjab had the storage capacity of 2.5 million tons. It needs three types of stores i.e regional, urban and local. In addition to the stores, the government was also hiring private stores for wheat every year. It was also building silos for another 500,000 tons, he added.

Dilating upon the procurement policy for 2005, he said 3.5 million tons would be purchased this year at a rate of Rs400 per 40kg.

He said flour mills would also be allowed to purchase and jute bags would be provided for Rs50 each for A class, Rs30 for B class and Rs13.50 for polypropylene bag.

The food department had established around 378 centres and Passco would purchase wheat from 13 tehsils and Hafizabad district, he said. —Staff Reporter