LAHORE: After a gap of a few years, a think tank of serving and retired ranker police officers from Punjab has again launched a move for the creation of the Provincial Police Service (PPS) to challenge the ‘dominance’ of the Police Service of Pakistan (PSPs) across the province.

The prime objective of the think tank is to reclaim the reserved posts which the officers argue, have been occupied by the PSPs in violation of the rules and regulations.

In the initial phase, the group has planned a baithak (seminar) at a hotel in Lahore on Wednesday (today) under the auspices of Republic Policy Organisation, inviting the police officials and others from all the ranks to attend, shed light on the longstanding issue and submit recommendations in order to ‘reform’ the police in Punjab.

A retired superintendent of police (SP) Tahir Maqsood Chheena is leading the move while many serving provincial police officers, who have joined the initiative, include SPs Syed Mohammad Abbas, Khalid Mahmood Afzal and Dr Mustansar Atta Bajwa.

The event has been organised two years after some provincial service police officers in 2022 brought a matter to the notice of the then chief secretary that the PSP officers were occupying “illegally” nearly 200 seats reserved for the provincial cadre and the matter was shelved for an indefinite period as no progress was made in this respect so far.

Through a letter, they had pointed out [at that time] that according to the schedule and the Inter-provincial Coordination Committee minutes of the meeting, only 162 out of 362 sanctioned posts were allocated to the Federal Services of Pakistan strength on a ‘sharing basis’, while the remaining posts were reserved for the provincial service.

“We are going to join heads at a historic occasion to discuss decades-old issue in today’s seminar”, Mr Tahir, who is also president of the organisation, told Dawn here on Tuesday. He said they wanted creation of the PPS on the pattern of the Provincial Management Service (PMS) in Punjab for the rights of provincial police service.

In Pakistan, Mr Tahir said, policing has undergone devolution, especially, in the wake of the 18th amendment to the Constitution.

“However, the federal police service/Police Service of Pakistan still controls policing at the provincial and district levels despite constitutional obligations”, the retired SP said.He said under Article 240 (b) and the PCS Acts, policing falls within the purview of provincial authority, necessitating the development of the provincial police service for effective policing in Punjab.

Additionally, Mr Tahir said the district police service plays a significant role as policing is always devolved to the most localised tier.

He went on saying that this system guaranteed that the policing is tailored to each district’s needs and challenges.

“So, creating the provincial police service in line with the provincial management service has become a critical subject for executing an exclusive provincial subject of policing”, the retired SP said.

If created, the PPS shall only be answerable to the province contrary to the PSPs who have nothing to do with the province and represent only the federal government, the SP said.

Published in Dawn, April 24th, 2024