HYDERABAD, June 8: The adviser to chief minister Sindh for the provincial home department, Aftab Ahmed Sheikh, has said that police excesses have increased manifold ever since the promulgation of the Police Order 2002 as there is no check and balance on the powers of police officers.

Speaking to a group of journalists at his residence on Sunday, he said that the constitution of the Police Complaint Authority and Public Safety Commissions at the district, provincial and national level should have preceded the promulgation of the Police Order 2002 as these institutions could only prove to be a counter-balance on the unbridled powers of police.

He said that the financial and administrative authority has been vested in the provincial police officer under Police Order 2002, and added that all these powers are just being exercised either on paper or in offices whereas police officers were least concerned about the atrocities committed against the people at large in the province.

He said that police had been given protection under Police Order 2002 as they could not be touched.

He stated that under the new system a police officer could not be transferred before three years of his tenure or unless the federal government took some initiatives on the ground of the police official’s inefficiency.

Mr Sheikh pointed out that Public Safety Commissions should have been formed as soon as the Police Order 2002 was promulgated because these bodies are the only means of check and balance on the working of the police.

He said that the provincial government alone has the superintendence over the police department because the provincial police officer, who enjoyed all administrative and financial powers, was not answerable even to the home secretary.

He said that he had been visiting police stations of the province ever since he took over charge of the department.

He said, “Young girls are being gang-raped, and false charges, particularly under section 13-D of the Arms Ordinance, are being instituted against the people.”

He boasted that he had taken it upon himself to check the atrocities of the police on his own and he would pay surprise visits to every police station.

Referring to the gang-rape case of a girl within the jurisdiction of the Moro police station, he said that for lodging an FIR, the girl’s family had to sell their goats for Rs10,000, which they had purchased for Rs40,000, and added that the policemen of the same police station subjected the girl to gang rape.

He said that he had received a letter from the girl’s family, and then he went to the Moro police station where police did not produce the girl before him.