MULTAN, Oct 21: The chairman of the provincial coordination committee for the district public safety commissions has criticized the bureaucrats, police officials and the district Nazims for “delaying” implementation of the police order, 2002.

Speaking at a press conference on Sunday, Mr Alamdar Husain Shah pointed out that the new police order had yet to be implemented even after an year of the DPSCs’ formation.

He said the forces, which used the police for their nefarious designs, were afraid of the DPSCs, and wanted to sabotage the reforms President Gen Pervez Musharraf was planning to introduce. “This can be judged from the fact that criminal cases have been lodged against the safety commission members in Lodhran, Mandi Bahauddin, Narowal and Sheikhupura,” said the committee head.

Mr Shah said the notification of the DPSCs members in Lahore, Okara and Sargodha had yet to be issued while in several other districts these lacked the required number of members to perform their duty. Similarly, the DPSCs in a majority of the districts were given part-time secretaries, who otherwise were employed with the departments fell under the control of district governments.

The DPSC secretaries, he alleged, often refused to attend the commission meetings on pretext of their involvement in the district government work routine. Also the district police officers felt insulted to attend the DPSC meetings, and even if they ‘graced’ the occasion they tried to sit besides the commission chairman.

He also accused the police authorities of ignoring the orders of the DPSCs. The police authorities were thrice reminded to provide the DPSCs the policing plans so that police stations could be raided to check violation, but they turned a deaf ear to the requests.

He said Sahiwal was the only district in the province where a case had been registered under the new police order.

The DPSC office-bearers in the province and he would resign, if the government did not take appropriate steps to make safety commissions effective as envisioned in the police order, 2002, Mr Shah warned.