HYDERABAD, April 18: Sindh Home Minister Syed Sardar Ahmed has termed the Jirga system illegal saying that he did not support it. He, however, stressed the need for evolving a Panchayat system, which was prevalent in India.

He said this while speaking to journalists after inaugurating the driving license branch in Qasimabad on Friday.

He said that he did not support the Jirga system even though the people got their problems resolved through this forum.

He maintained that we would have to evolve Panchayat system for the purpose of arbitration, adding that the Jirga system in our society was quite similar to that of the Panchayat system prevailing in India.

To a question about jail reforms, he said that the Sindh government had revived visitors’ committees, consisting of 12 members, all over Sindh province as per the cabinet decision.

He said that the provincial level committee would review the recommendations put forward by the visitors’ committees.

He disclosed that treasury and opposition benches MPAs would be inducted, apart from the influential people of the area, adding that they would be able to visit the jails anytime.

Referring to reorganization of the police as has been done in some parts of Punjab, he said that the police order and separation of Investigation and Watch & Ward wings was being reviewed by a committee of the Sindh government.

He said that various options were available in the Police Order 2002 and Punjab had adopted one of them with regard to its police.

He said that in some cases complaints were received that the investigation wing did not investigate the cases properly resulting in bail or release of the accused.

He said that was why the performance of the police was being reviewed in order to improve their efficiency and to lessen the ratio of complaints as much as possible.

To a question that work was continuing on the Thal canal despite passage of a resolution by the Sindh Assembly, he replied that the matter had been sent to the Council of Common Interest (CCI) and the Federal Government and now it was upto them to look into it.

Admitting that the law and order situation was not satisfactory in the tribal belt, he said Sindh’s tribal belt was divided into two parts, i.e. A and B.

He said that the former was under the jurisdiction of the police, while the latter was to be controlled by levies.

He further said that recent cases of tribal conflicts, particularly that of the Kashmore killings, pertain to the jurisdiction of levies.

He said that the issue was being discussed with the governments of Punjab and Balochistan to evolve a modus vivendi to contain such incidents.

Sanctioning the post of DSP Traffic for Hyderabad district, he urged the district police to maintain the driving license branch properly.

He asked the regional police officer (RPO), Ghulam Mohammad Malkani, to discuss the problems of his region with him in Karachi.

The DPO, A. D. Khwaja, said that it was the driving license branch which would issue plastic-coded and computerized driving licenses.

He said that the sanctioned strength of the traffic police was 136 since 1982 though the population of the city had increased by 10 to 20 per cent.