LAHORE, Oct 30: Police have not been consulted about the new service structure proposed for them, which would make their service a provincial subject after elimination of the Police Service of Pakistan (PSP).

The proposed police setup is a part of the widely-discussed overall service structure planned by the National Reconstruction Bureau (NRB). However, dispelling the impression that police had a say in the NRB, a senior police officer said: “We have neither been sent a copy of the new service plan nor consulted in this regard.”

After managing to save themselves from the devolution plan and getting a favourable Police Order 2002 despite a plethora of objections from all provinces, police are considered to have a say in the NRB which has suggested many administrative and legal reforms in the country.

“I do not know much about the new plan, but it certainly goes against the spirit of the new police law which has given more powers and funds to police,” another senior police officer commented on condition of anonymity.

Police authorities in the Punjab had expressed their ignorance with regard to the service plan which was first sent to the provinces for comments early last month. It was sent to them only after it had been amended in the light of objections raised by the provinces. In the Punjab, many high-level meetings have been held to discuss the NRB plan.

Prior to this, the NRB had given two presentations to President Gen Pervez Musharraf to seek his approval.

In the first draft of the new plan, the NRB had proposed elimination of the PSP, making the police a purely provincial subject. It had proposed that officers should be sent on deputation to man all-Pakistan posts like those in the railways, motorway, FIA or the federal capital.

However, in the amended form, it says that while the main police group (presently the APUG) should be made a provincial service, a new police group might be created as part of the Federal Civil Service (presently the FUG) to man the posts under federal government in the railways, motorway, FIA and Islamabad Capital Territory.

In a bid to further professionalize the federal service, two specialized cadres — one for the railways and the Islamabad Capital Territory and the other for motorways and highways — might be created within this group.

The plan says that since police is primarily a provincial concern, the present all-Pakistan status of the service is not justifiable. “However, training of police officers will remain centralized at the National Police Academy,” it adds.