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| July 01, 2006 | Saturday | Jumadi-ul-Sani 4, 1427 |
Police reforms spark war of words in PA
LAHORE, June 30: The opposition in the Punjab Assembly criticised the government on Friday for “taking three and-a-half years in thinking about improvement in the police stations” as the treasury claimed the credit for initiating the project for the first time in the country’s history.
Only Rana Sanaullah Khan, the deputy opposition leader, got an opportunity to speak on the chief minister’s initiative for improvement in the police stations after law minister Basharat Raja read out the recommendations in this regard. The other members from opposition and treasury would, however, have a chance to give their suggestions in this respect in the next session on Monday.
Mr Sanaullah was critical of the effort, saying it had been carried out to achieve political ends. “The recommendations are already part of the Police Order 2002 and primarily no method has been suggested to explain how to improve the working of police stations and to provide relief to the masses.
“Every one knows where the problem lies. The police order document is all about its (police) reforms and if it was introduced in 2002, why the government has not implemented it till now. The government should now think something else because its days are numbered,” he said.
Communication and works minister Chaudhry Zaheeruddin and prisons minister Saeed Akbar Nawani on the point of order asked Mr Sanaullah not to go for criticism for the sake of criticism. “It is a serious matter and you must not try to score a point,” they said, urging him to give his recommendations if he had any, as it was not a final draft document.
Chaudhry Zaheeruddin rapped the opposition, especially the PPP members, for not turning up to take part in such a serious issue. The law minister on the point of order joined criticism, describing Sanaullah’s arguments as “irrelevant discourse” on the issue. He said the opposition leader was not prepared to discuss the issue.
Earlier, reading out the draft of the chief minister’s initiative, Basharat Raja said a committee had been constituted under him to identify the ills afflicting the police station working and to suggest ways to reduce public complaints, enhance police efficiency, and improve their working environment and service conditions.
He said the committee held detailed deliberations with the stakeholders, including members of the civil society, and the recommendations in this regard had been presented to the CM and the cabinet.
Mr Raja said the general public had to face inconvenience at pickets, impolite officials in police stations and problems in registration of cases. Illegal detention, torture, fake encounters, patronising crime and corruption are the other major complaints.
The policemen were also facing problems like job security, financial stress, extended working hours, a lack of health facilities, residential accommodation, improper messing arrangements, unhygienic conditions and difficulty in getting leave.
The committee recommended that the FIR registration centres should be located in a separate room in the offices of the CCPO, DIG operations, SSP operations, DPOs, town police officers and SDPOs to ensure hassle-free registration. An inspector legal should head the centre and offer advice to the complainants, besides issuing orders for registration of FIR in cognisable offences. A departmental action be recommended against the police officer who refused to register an FIR.
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