March 19, 2007	Monday	Safar 29, 1428

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LAHORE, March 18: As a first step towards giving autonomy to the police in five main cities in Punjab, the provincial government may allow them to submit their annual budgets directly to the finance department for approval and release of funds.

“The decision will be announced soon, but the dominant thinking right now is to make the police force in these cities (which have already been declared general areas or independent units) adopt the same procedure of budget making and its approval as is being followed by all government departments, including the IGP office,” official sources informed Dawn here on Sunday.

The Punjab government had recently declared the capital cities of Lahore, Rawalpindi, Gujranwala, Faisalabad and Multan general areas under the Police Order 2002, meaning thereby that the police in these districts has wriggled out of the administrative and financial control of the provincial police chief (IGP) as independent units.

This also means that from now onwards the police chiefs of these cities will have administrative and financial powers as are being enjoyed by the IGP under the Police Order. And they are now under the direct control of the provincial government through the home department.

Reacting to the move, the police authorities had during a recent meeting with the provincial government demanded that except for Lahore, the police chiefs of these cities should be put under the control of the IGP through the regional police chiefs who have also recently replaced the DIGs of ranges. And for making this arrangement, the authorities had suggested appointment of additional IGPs as the regional chiefs.

The police authorities had also demanded that the police chiefs of the four cities should send their budgets to the IGP through the regional chiefs for consolidation and merger with the budgets for the rest of the districts in the province to ensure equitable distribution of funds, men and material. For Lahore, they had demanded a direct channel between the CCPO and the IGP.

Sources said if the decision was made, requests for supplementary grants or additional budget by the police of these five cities would be sent to the administrative department for comments.

To a query, they said, the home department was naturally the administrative department of the police. The IGP was an ex-officio secretary whereas the home secretary was heading the administrative department of the police according to the law of the country.

They said before the introduction of the police order, the central police office (CPO) used to send its annual budget directly to the home department for approval. But now under the new paradigm, the PPO and the police chiefs of these five cities were required to send their budgets directly to the finance department or the planning and development board.

“It is the requirement of the law in force and one cannot run the official affairs through wishful thinking,” sources said.

They said the district administrations were being run according to the Local Government Ordinance under which the DCO headed all 12 devolved departments under him. Under the same arrangement, he was allowed to make their budget. He was required to seek consent of the administrative secretaries of these departments only when he desired transfer of their officials under him from one place to another.

“No-one has tried to change the system because this is provided by the law. So how can one seek administrative and financial arrangements over and above the police order?” they asked.

When asked whether the provincial government would request the federal government to amend the police law as was being desired by the Punjab police to control the five cities through the regional chiefs, they said “it looks difficult.”

“Who can amend the police law is a moot point which the provincial government intends to raise in the next inter-provincial coordination committee (IPCC) meeting,” they revealed.

The law was introduced through an order of the military government which was enforced in the provinces notwithstanding the fact that the Constitution declares the law and order a provincial subject.

The local government law was introduced through an ordinance, but the provinces were allowed to separately promulgate it in realisation of the constitutional declaration that such a law was a provincial subject, sources said.

They said the police order could not be amended without an approval by the president but it was yet to be seen as to who, either the provinces or the federal government, had the right to seek his consent for the purpose. It was also yet to be seen as to how the law would protect provinces’ constitutional right of handling law and order.