A retired police officer complained in a letter to this newspaper in January 2011 that “the media see little good in what the police do and few people try to fathom the reasons for their poor performance”.

Four years later the critics, to their surprise, find officers and wings of the Punjab police blaming each other for the poor performance of the force as a whole. And behind the blame game appeared a turf war.

This emerged from a meeting of the Punjab Highway Patrolling Police (PHP) held last month to discuss why highway robberies and crimes were on the rise. PHP was created in 2003 to provide security to travelling public and assist the district police in curtailing crime.

Patrol officers called to the November 17 meeting, held at the PHP headquarters, took the plea that though the PHP has its own command and control structure, the district police from Station House Officers to Deputy Superintendents of Police and Sub-Division Police Officers disregard the PHP authority and assert their own. Thus they interfere in the operational matters of the patrolling police, affecting the force’s performance and the task of reducing the crime rate is not achieved.

Traffic management on the 12 highways in the Punjab is the main task of the PHP. But its officers are also required to keep the highways clear of encroachers and apprehend other criminals. However, for the legal proceedings against the culprits the PHP has to hand them over to the area police.

SSP PHP, retired Capt Atta Muhammad, however, has not heard of any such complaints.

“Police are a disciplined force and the mandate of the PHP and the district police is same. No complaint regarding interference by any district police officer in our operations has come to light so far, especially in the Rawalpindi region so far,” he told Dawn.

Still, conflicts over domain between different arms of the police, and hierarchical authority exercised within an arm, seem to have created a situation serious enough for the Inspector General of Punjab Police Mushtaq Ahmed Sukhera to formally direct divisional and district police chiefs across the province to be cooperative and to remove ‘official hurdles’ that low-ranking police officials face in meeting their seniors in connection with transfer, posting and welfare issues.

A low ranking officer, on the condition of anonymity, narrated to Dawn the ordeal of a constable who broke his leg but could not get medical leave because of the “official hurdles”.

“His low-rank line officer (the immediate in-charge) won’t take the risk of granting him leave and directed him to see the area SP. The poor man hobbled to SP’s office for two weeks but he remained inaccessible. In the end the pain made him leave on his own,” he said.

“Even the low rankers summoned by senior officers are not ushered in at the appointed time. Official hurdles make them wait for hours, sometimes for days.”  

According to SSP Atta Muhammad, 30 PHP posts are operational in Rawalpindi region at present. Another 30 will be constructed to reach the number of posts sanctioned for the region when PHP was launched in 2003.

Currently 450 highway patrolling posts are operational in Punjab, which help in controlling crimes on highways. As new posts are created, fresh and educated staff is recruited for them.

Last month, the PHP high command approved the proposal for an inspection of arms and ammunition given to the posts to know if any weapon or material was missing or had been tempered and initiate departmental action.

A review of the PHP performance at the November 17 meeting revealed challans and fines had gone down on 12 busy roads in Lahore, Faisalabad, D.G. Khan and Multan regions where the PHP had been managing the traffic. A senior police officer gave a different picture of Faisalabad where open kutcheries (public meeting with police) are frequently held for low ranking police officials to speak their minds, problems and grievances freely. Senior police officers visit police stations regularly and meet the staff. But the police in other districts lack in such good practices.

“If the abhorrent police culture is to be changed, the officer class must change its attitudes. Above all, appointments to senior police position should be made strictly on merit and not on political affiliations,” said the officer.

Published in Dawn December 6th , 2014