Punjab police have refused to accept the proposed reform package and suggested replicating police reforms introduced in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 2017, reforms that are widely believed to have led to PTI's victory in the 2018 polls.
Following their serious reservations over the proposed reforms, the sources said that Punjab Law Minister Basharat Raja has summoned senior police officers of the province for a meeting today (Sunday) with the objective of addressing their concerns.
Interior Secretary Major Azam Suleman Khan (retd) had got the prime minister's approval for the reforms who may not have read the fine print, sources told Business Recorder on condition of anonymity, adding that the proposals were certainly not shared with the police department.
Senior police officers, who on Wednesday last had threatened to resign, further stated that reforms would be acceptable only if the government makes the police operationally independent, politically neutral, and a professionally competent force instead of allowing the bureaucracy to interfere in their affairs.
They pointed out that under the new system, the major functions of the police would be performed by the deputy commissioners (DCs) who have been given judicial powers of 22A and 22B of Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC).
"The proposed amendment is outdated and the powers given to the DCs date back to the British colonial era", a senior police officer said on condition of anonymity.
He further added that the new system authorizes the DCs to conduct inspection of police stations and curtail powers of senior police officers. They said that if the government wants to bring police reforms in Punjab, then it should replicate those that have already been done in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
"There is considerable resentment at top police officers level over the proposed reforms and I believe they will only accept reforms on the same pattern as in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa under which the province's IGP is operationally independent from the ministry or bureaucracy", said another senior police officer who requested anonymity.
He pointed out that the proposed reforms for Punjab which give more powers to the district administration would worsen the system instead of improving it. He said that the government should have taken input from senior police officers before finalizing the reforms.
Before the insertion of 22A and 22B of CrPC, the procedure for the public was to approach a session court in case of police reluctance to register first information report (FIR) and in 2019 Chairman of National Judicial Policy Making Committee (NJPMC) decided that in case if concern SHO refuses to registered FIR then complainant would file application before SP complaint cell instead of sessions court. In case the complaint is not resolved in the cell, then the applicant would move to the sessions court.
On Wednesday, the senior police officers of the Punjab reportedly held a meeting at the Central Police Office and threatened to resign if the provincial government goes ahead with the new reforms without taking their input.
Sources in the police told Business Recorder that PTI's coalition partners in Punjab may also have reservations on the proposed reforms. However, PML-Q secretary-general Kamil Ali Agha ruled out any differences between the coalition partners over the proposed police reforms in Punjab. He said that the government has the right to frame rules and public servants are required to act upon the rules without any reservations. He further said that input from all the stakeholders needs to be considered with a view to making the reforms more effective.
A senior bureaucrat on condition of anonymity told Business Recorder that setting up rules is the government's job and public servants are only required to implement them and not act like stakeholders.
Dr Shoaib Suddle, a former Inspector General Police (IGP), said that the tension between a particular group of bureaucracy and police is a legacy of the British colonial rule when the deputy commissioner acted as representative of the viceroy.
"After independence, this anachronistic arrangement needed a fundamental change. Unfortunately, every attempt at change has been resisted to the hilt by vested interests", he added.
He said that an independent commission/committee headed by a retired Supreme Court judge should have been tasked to suggest reforms keeping in view the present law and order challenges.
"How can members of one - hostile - service decide reforms for the other? Their latest 'reform' proposals are nothing but a travesty of justice. What they have done is to promote their old hegemonic agenda without even bothering to have any input from those who, according to them, need to be reformed.
"Neither can such motivated and partisan recommendations [reforms] be acceptable to the citizens eager for effective and fair policing nor to the police service without ensuring the latter's autonomous status and freedom from undue shackles of interested bureaucracy," he said.
Suddle added that in the proposed 'reform' package, critical public interest institutions like Public Safety Commissions and Independent Police Complaint Authorities have been done away with and substituted with partisan bureaucratic oversight mechanisms.
In the process, he pointed out that the statutory representation of public representatives from both government and opposition as well as of independent members from the civil society chosen by the chief justice of Pakistan and the chief justices of respective high courts has been scrapped.
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