ISLAMABAD, March 16: Federal Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider will formally present the text of the new Police Act in the March 20 cabinet meeting to be presided over by President Pervez Musharraf.

The president would brief the members on his Japan tour and would review various national matters including new Press Council and Book Publication Ordinance. Four provincial governors will also join the meeting.

The Interior Ministry has finalized the text of the Police Act after lengthy deliberations with the National Reconstruction Bureau and all four provincial governments. The cabinet had earlier too asked for certain improvements in the Police Act.

It has been proposed in the new Police Act that police could raid residential and other places without any search warrant. The provincial governments have raised several objections to the Act to the National Reconstruction Bureau.

Talking to NNI, Moin said that proposals regarding the Act had been sent to the Interior Ministry by the provincial governments.

The minister said: “The present government has the credit to change the Police Act framed in 1861 and being implemented since the creation of Pakistan.”

The Police Act of the British colonial power had ruled the masses since ages and regrettably none of the previous governments had bothered to replace it, Moin maintained.

The police performance, Moin said, would now be according to the people’s expectations.

“The prosecution and investigation departments of police have been segregated to make the department more efficient.”