National Reconstruction Bureau (NRB) Chairman Daniyal Aziz on Thursday said the current governance problem in the country is due to multiple institutional failure.
"We have been victim of institutional failure since years and all this happened due to negligence of successive government and lack of masses sharing in decision making," he said briefing the senior journalists on Police Order 2002.
Since a number of problems are facing the country in terms of inter-service cadre rivalry, he said, only a commitment to cause and continuity of better policies can turn things around.
"We will have to steer country out of this dilemma, though gradually but with a commitment, to overcome problems prevailing in the society," Daniyal added.
Devolution of powers to the lowest level is the first step towards this dimension and there is no two opinions that only a system based on masses sharing could help bring a change, the NRB chairman said.
Number of objections were raised by participating columnists, critics and journalists about this system with a common notion that the system had failed to come to up to masses aspirations.
"Failure in delivery to the optimum do not mean to wrap up the system. There is always room for improvement and one should continue striving for it," he replied to the objections.
Daniyal said with due course of time problems facing this system were mitigating and this is for the first time that decisions are being made at local level.
"Political and administrative relationship between the two tiers had crossed all the barriers and was considered above the law," he regretted.
"We faced the gigantic challenge to change this mindset and develop a thinking based on ownership rights at different levels," he said and added, "we are on our way towards this destination."
He acknowledged that the parliamentarians have certain reservation regarding their powers in presence of this new Local Government system and the NRB is seriously looking into their reservations.
He said under the Police Order 2002, police head in the district will be answerable to district Nazim and the district Nazim will not unnecessarily interfere in their day to day functioning and dispensation of professional duties like investigation and presenting the challans before the courts.
He referred to District Public Safety Commissions (DPSCs) and Criminal Justice Co-ordination Committees (CJCC) and said, the new Order provides basis for minimum influence of those in power on the functioning of police.
On the other hand, he said, the Police has also not been given a free hand to act in their own way.
"We have ensured that nobody plays freely and different tiers in this system provide for a check on one another."
Even though there can be ambiguities in this system, he admitted, but said, things cannot be turned around within days to generate desired results.
"This is not an ordinary thing to change 150 years old system. It might be needing years to familiar people with this new system," he added.
He said there had been a tug of war between the democracy and the administrative structure and the situation deteriorated to a level where a dire need was felt for replacing the old system. Politicians had been leading their lives under the administrative structure that necessitated to develop the culture of ownership.
Daniyal gave a detailed briefing about constitution of DPSCs in provinces and provision of funds and other facilities to these Commissions.
However, he said, except Punjab the DPSCs in other provinces were still facing problems like funds, staff, vehicles and offices.
He also presented a data regarding postings and transfers of SHOs and the tenure of their posting at different police stations.
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