KARACHI: A group of former police chiefs have expressed concern over reports that the government was looking into a proposal to restructure the Central Superior Services by splitting it into separate service streams.

The proposal has been made by the task force on civil service reforms and government restructuring.

In a meeting in Islamabad, the Association of Former Inspectors General of Police (AFIGP) passed a resolution opposing the proposed restructuring. “The AFIGP executive committee has expressed concern regarding reports in the media that Central Superior Services are being restructured and reformed into separate service streams by the task force on civil service reforms and government restructuring,” said a statement issued by the association after the meeting.

“A new recruitment and induction procedure has been proposed for the police service. This experiment of tinkering with the police management structure in the name of specialisation had been done during the 1950s and 70s. But all attempts had failed to achieve the objectives.

“It will be a fallacy to repeat the same experiment and to expect a different result,” the statement said.

The police force, the AFIGP body added, was an all Pakistan federal service and protected by constitutional provisions under Article 240 which ensured integration of federating units through functions assigned to this service.

“The proposed reforms will only help in the localisation of policing functions. The reforms and restructuring must be undertaken with the active involvement of all stakeholders, including police and a wider cross-section of society,” it added.

The executive committee of the body includes Iftikhar Rashid, Afzal Shigri, Tariq Khosa, Mohib Asad, Saeed Khan, Shaukat Javed, Saud Gohar, Shahid Nadeem and Kamaludin Tipu.

Published in Dawn, March 7th, 2019