ABBOTTABAD, Aug 21: Dr Khalid Ranjha, Federal Minister for Law, Justice and Human Rights, has said that it is fundamentally important to uplift the image of police by improving its performance, and asked the police authorities to implement the double-check system in the police.

He was addressing as chief guest at a two-day seminar on Human Rights and Policing, organized by the Hazara police with the collaboration of the ministry of law, justice and human rights, here on Tuesday.

Ranjha said for improving the performance of the police force working conditions of the police should be improved in order to give police a civil face.

There was nothing wrong in the old police Act but the main hurdle was the attitude of the police force which needed a change, and stressed that the new police Act could also not improve the image of the police if the attitude was not changed.

Giving a word of advice to the organizers, he put forward the proposal that police statement should be made part of the court proceedings, and said there was no harm if the initial statement recorded by the police officer was changed under section 161 where police officers showed hesitation to change it.

The NWFP Inspector General of Police, Saeed Khan, in his welcome address said due to increasing awareness about the human liberties, rights and privileges all over the world, the task of the police had assumed ever-increasing significance.

The challenging situation demanded that more enthusiasm be shown in according the basic human rights and this conduct needed to be in accordance with the provisions of law, Islamic injunctions and the Declaration of Human Rights.

The NWFP IGP said fortunately the province has had a history of tradition of more public friendly police force which served as a deterrent to the executive misuse of police authority as also ensuring a considerable degree of respect for human rights while dealing with the criminals and cases of extra-judicial killings were almost non-existent in the province.

Former interior secretary Ilyas Mohsin spoke on the criminal justice system, Mardan DIG Adbul Lateen Khan Gandapur spoke on the topic of human rights and Islamic perspective and prominent social worker Asma Akber spoke on children’s rights.