LAHORE, Feb 18: Senior police officials have reportedly begun considering the future administrative setup for the newly-created general areas in five big cities in Punjab with indications that the areas will not be given full autonomy as enshrined in the Police Order 2002 to keep them dependent on the provincial police officer (PPO) one way or another.

The department has also begun considering the administrative arrangements for the newly created regions which had replaced the age-old police ranges, official sources informed Dawn on Sunday.

The provincial government recently declared Lahore, Faisalabad, Multan, Rawalpindi and Gujranwala general areas, creating autonomous police departments there.

With the declaration, Lahore is a capital city police and others city districts. Each city has an independent unit with administrative and financial powers under the police order.

This means that the police of these cities are now not the Punjab police but Lahore police, Rawalpindi police, Multan police, Faisalabad police and Gujranwala police.

Official sources said autonomy meant that the police in the five cities were not under the administrative and financial control of the PPO. Similarly, the police department is not under the control of the Home Department following the enactment of the police order.

But there are chances that the IGP’s office may deny or delay the autonomy as was done by the home department while granting autonomy to police five years ago.

Sources said there were chances that city police officers (CPOs) in Rawalpindi, Gujranwala, Multan and Faisalabad would be given senior superintendents of police (SSPs) for investigation and operations instead of deputy inspectors general of police.

The law provides that an officer not below the rank of a DIG should be appointed a CPO. Right now, two additional IGPs had been appointed CPOs in Multan and Faisalabad. But it could not be ruled out that DIGs would be appointed as CPOs in the four cities, the sources claimed.

The capital city police of Lahore might get DIGs of operations and investigation because under the law the CCPO must be an additional IGP of BS-21.

The government had recently posted DIG (operations) Aftab Cheema (BS-19) SSP (operations) in Lahore to match the posting with his grade. The post of DIG (operations) had not been abolished and it seemed that it would also be filled, the sources said.

The courts and quarters concerned had objected to the post of SSP (investigation) which has been lying vacant since the transfer of Chaudhry Shafqat Ahmad.

They said running autonomous police in the five cities required offices like headquarters, establishment and finance.

But these cities are likely not to be given such paraphernalia so that they remain dependent on the central police office of the IGP in the name of “guidance”, sources claimed.

Sources said the major area under which the IGP office would try to maintain its hold on the five cities was its powers to make rules.

There are chances that the required rules will be delayed or made in such a way that could ensure the supremacy of the IGP office. Source said that investigation wings could also be given under the command of district police officer in districts to streamline functioning.