Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pervez Khattak has approved the certain amendments in the Police Reforms Act that opened the existing police Act out of the cocoon. The new amendments would be tabled in the provincial assembly for incorporation into the police reforms act.
The Chief Minister while chairing a meeting on police reforms here in the Chief Minister secretariat on Wednesday said his government will make legislation for the police reforms as this province has multi-faceted challenges and the reforms were for the benefit of the people. These reforms would discourage crime promotion as practised in the past and would promote crime fighting in the province.
The meeting attended by Provincial Minister for Local Government Inayatullah Khan, Minister Irrigation Sikandar Hayat Sherpao, Minister Elementary and Secondary Education Mohammad Atif Khan, Minister Public Health Engineering Shah Farman, Minister for Law Imtiaz Shahid Qureshi and other concerned authorises, took for debate the contentious issues and that agreed upon by the earlier formed committee of the provincial cabinet on consensus.
The meeting had a thread bare review of different sections making the police non-political, an autonomous and independent body accountable internally and externally. The draft bill 2016 will be a more compact legislation for police reforms, making this force more efficient, more effective and people friendly and more responsive to the people. This will be a step towards a metropolitan policing on the pattern of Ireland policing. The meeting agreed to the proposal for the selection of Inspector general of Police of the province by the Chief Minister within the panel of three. It also agreed to the autonomy of IGP in postings and transfers etc.
Chief Mister Pervez Khattak said that his government would never interfere in the professional responsibilities of police force but it does not mean, however that there will be no check and balance mechanism. There will certainly be multi layers checks on police in the new amendments making it more professional, more efficient and more responsive to the crime fighting and complaints of the people. His government wanted this approach to be on ground in order to tackle the growing challenges in the province.
The Chief Minister said that his government wanted police force to be independent, autonomous but there should be some sort of accountability that included financial accountability and responsiveness to the public complaints that will reduce the trust deficit on police force and stop the eroding sledge in both the performance and people confidence on police force. He said that with the proposed amendments, his government had tried to get the police out of the cocoon and enabled this force to have greater space for delivery in consonance with the people's expectations.
Pervez Khattak said that financial checks on all institutions were parts of the government agenda to check the misuse of resources and make all institutions responsive to the concept of good governance as promised by his government. Institutions would be accountable at all tiers of governance and therefore the weaknesses in the existing system have been removed and made more consistent to the present day needs and requirements.
The Chief Minister assured a separate police structure and asked the quarter concerned for a proposal for onward transmission to the federal government. His government, he added, agreed to the fast track promotion for assistant sub Inspector, Sub inspectors etc but they would have to clear examination from the PSC and they should be graduated.