LAHORE: In a bid to improve efficiency by posting eligible officers against key posts and curb the tendency of political interference, the Punjab Police is considering a proposal to make appointments of the regional and district police heads through advertising these positions.

The proposal has been floated in pursuance of international best practices in a bid to appoint best available officers against these key posts.

According to the proposal, the police department would advertise the posts of regional police officers (RPOs) and district police officers (DPOs), setting criteria for the candidates to qualify for the advertised positions.

The proposal envisage such appointments for a specific period and also requires the high-ups to give cogent reasons if they want to remove the officers posted against these slots through advertisements. The criteria for the officers qualification for these posts is being defined at the Central Police Office (CPO).

Proposal aims at officers’ tenure protection, ending political interference

It seeks an end to the decades-old system under which the field officers, particularly, the RPOs and DPOs are largely replaced at the stroke of pen or a phone call.

An official privy to the development says the scheme has been proposed by Punjab Inspector General of Police Faisal Shahkar in the light of his over a decade-long experience of serving in various international organisations, including UN.

The official says the proposal aims to get rid of chronic issue of political interference in the police appointments, which has marred the organisation’s performance.Elaborating, he says, it has been proposed that only BS-18 and BS-19 officers, having experience of serving as investigation and operations SPs in any part of the province for a certain period, should be eligible for the post of DPO.

He says the advertisements inviting applications for RPO and DPO slots would clearly state the criteria set for the interested candidates.

A high-powered board comprising senior police officers in additional IG rank has been proposed to scrutinise the applications, he adds. Headed by the provincial police chief, the proposed board will either be titled ‘selection committee’ or ‘police appointment board’.

As per the proposal, the board will short list three names from amongst the candidates for the DPO slot on the basis of the set criteria and their performance evaluation reports, he says, adding these names will be recommended to the chief minister to appoint one of one of them against the slot. Same criteria will be applied for appointment of RPOs, the official says.

The official says, it has also been proposed that only those officers should be eligible for the post of DPO who have served not more than five times as district police head.

He says the IG, who has been part of a team of experts at the United Nation (UN) headquarters that offers policy guidelines, has shared international best practices with senior police officers at the CPO. Mr Shahkar also studied various models of policing during his six-year service in USA, Italy, Sweden and UK.

The official says some of the senior officers at the CPO, who are beneficiary of the old system of appointments, are resisting the proposal.

He says the issue was also on the agenda of a meeting of Punjab Police Executive Board held on Wednesday, where the IG sought proposals for the next huddle for implementation of the scheme.

Meanwhile, the police board meeting also decided to devolve some powers of the IG down to the additional IGs sitting at the CPO. Addressing the meeting, Mr Shahkar said the powers would be delegated to the heads of various branches and units for speedy execution, better and improved public service delivery.

The IG also ordered holding of regular board meetings.

The meeting also made amendments to the job description of police’s legal, welfare, operations, establishment and other branches.

Women officers and ranker officers were also present in the executive board meeting, who presented suggestions based on their observations regarding the issues under discussion.

Published in Dawn, October 6th, 2022