PESHAWAR, Feb 4: The proposed Regional Coordination Offices (RCOs), being portrayed as people who will solve all problems, are unlikely to bring any significant improvement in the law and order situation in the NWFP and the volatile tribal belt, according to senior government officials.
Senior bureaucrats told Dawn that the RCOs would have sweeping powers, next only to the chief secretary, but the terms of references (ToRs) stated nothing about the responsibilities of other key functionaries like the District Coordination Officers, District Police Officers, Political Agents and nazims.
The NWFP governor on January 17 approved the appointment of three RCOs for the NWFP and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) in line with the directives of the prime minister.
Sources in the Establishment Department told Dawn that the authorities were in search of suitable grade 20 officers, preferably those who had served both in the settled areas and tribal regions on field postings. They said that posting orders of officers as RCOs were expected to be issued after the general election.
According to the sources, some senior officials have serious reservations over the job description of RCOs and a couple of them have expressed their unwillingness to serve on the positions.
One official told Dawn that the responsibilities of the RCOs were without a legal framework.
For instance, he said, maintaining law and order in terms of relations between Fata and adjoining settled districts was one of the tasks of the RCOs. But under the Local Government Ordinance (LGO-2001), the district administration, including the DCOs, report to the district nazim.
Likewise, the DPO under the Police Order, 2002, is answerable only to the district nazim on law and order issues. “In the prevailing situation, when the district nazim is not answerable to anyone except his constituency how can an RCO put the nazim on board for maintaining law and order unless the LGO-2001 and Police Order, 2002, are amended” asked the officer.
Moreover, establishing institutional linkages among the provincial government, district governments, tribal areas and the Fata secretariat is another obligation of the RCO.
Previously, commissioners, supervised by the Home and Tribal Affairs Department, served as the main link among districts, tribal agencies and the provincial government.
But after the commissioners’ office was abolished and the Fata secretariat was created, all such linkages were lost.
“The new arrangements will add to the confusion unless a legal framework is formulated for the RCOs,” said the officials.
It may be mentioned that the areas of the NWFP and Fata have been divided into three regions, including the northern, central and southern.
The northern region will cover Peshawar, Charsadda, Mardan, Nowshera, Swabi, Swat, Malakand, Dir Upper, Dir Lower, Kohistan, Chitral, Mansehra, Battagram, Haripur districts of the NWFP, Mohmand and Bajaur tribal regions, and the Frontier Region of Peshawar. The headquarters of this region will be in Peshawar.
The central region will comprise Kohat, Hangu and Karak districts, Kurram and Orakzai tribal regions and FR Kohat with its headquarters in Kohat.
The southern region will comprise Dera Ismail Khan, Bannu, Tank and Lakki Marwat districts, North and South Waziristan tribal regions and FR Bannu, FR Dera Ismail Khan, FR Tank and FR Lakki Marwat.
