LAHORE, Feb 1: The creation of a specialised and separate investigation cadre in police is one of the major recommendations Punjab is making for amendments to the Police Order 2002.

Other provinces too were suggesting the amendments under direction by President Pervez Musharraf who wanted to remove flaws in the police order which had rendered it ineffective, official sources informed Dawn here on Thursday.

They said Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi who had recently constituted a committee under Law Minister Raja Basharat to suggest the amendments, was chairing a meeting here on Friday (today) to finalise the recommendations.

According to sources, the federal government which had also suggested some amendments to the law, was going to move an amended bill in the National Assembly on Feb 6.

The amendments had already been cleared by the National Assembly’s Standing Committee concerned, they said. They, nevertheless, clarified that the amendments being suggested by Punjab and other provinces would be considered for inclusion in the police order separately.

Sources said Punjab was suggesting creation of a specialized investigation wing in the police department to strengthen this side of policing through permanent and specially trained staff.

Under the proposal, officials and officers opting to join the investigation wing should not be allowed to be transferred to the watch and ward wing of police. They and the new recruits should be given specialized training in modern and traditional methods of investigation by experts in the field.

SHOs of police stations should continue to be posted from amongst the officers of the operation wing to perform the watch and ward and duty and to register cases of crime. But the investigation staff should work independent of the regular police station staff.

Right now, the investigation staff is housed in police stations because of lack of places for their separate offices. But, the proposal says, they should also be given separate offices to indicate their independence from regular police.

Sources said the province was also suggesting ways and means to simplify procedure for change of investigation from one officer to another.

They said the provincial law, home, public prosecution and police departments were finalising the amendments to be presented to the chief minister for a final decision.

The committee comprised Chief Secretary Salman Siddique, secretaries of the law and home departments and Police Reforms Director-General (DIG) Javaid Noor.

It may be mentioned here that the Lahore High Court hearing a petition regarding the arrest of the killers of Punjab Additional Advocate-General Arif Bhinder and others has already questioned the non-implementation of the police order especially with regard to the posting and transfer of police officers.