Restoration of commissionerate system in....
Saturday, 01 November 2008
The old Commissionerate system has already been revived in the Punjab and is in the process of being restored in Balochistan and the NWFP, while Sindh is also considering restoring the system within days.
Sources in Islamabad have said that a meeting was held in the capital which was attended by government personalities, administrators and officers from District Management Group to revive the old Commissionerate System, especially in Sindh. Moreover, for Sindh, the government is considering demolishing the Police Order 2002 and reviving the Supremacy of Magistracy and now they are concentrating on modifying the powers of the Local Government Ordinance. It is also pertinent to mention here that the federal control area of Islamabad remained unchanged and the Commissionerate system never disturbed Islamabad under the previous government under the National Reconstruction Bureau (NRB).
They wasted money, time and human resources on such a useless scheme, which disturbed the very edifice of the bureaucracy by damaging the old system of police magistracy working under the deputy commissioner as District Magistrate and Commissioner working under the home secretary and chief secretary of the province.
We as a nation are in the habit of damaging our institutions; in other countries the institutions are not disturbed rather are protected. As far as the Police Order 2002 is concerned it was not a new ordinance or law but few amendments were made in the Punjab Police Rules 1934 and Police Act of 1861. Thus combination of Police Rules 1934 and Police Act of 1861 was prepared and introduced as Police Ordinance 2002.
All those police officers who were responsible and took credit during a meeting of then government personalities held at Central Police Office Karachi held in 2001 must now be sorted out and should be asked to deposit the expenditure which cost the government in introducing Police Order 2002, source said.
Actually Police Order 2002 was a conspiracy to hand over the transfer and posting of all the four Provincial Police Officers to the federal government under the Ministry of Interior and the powers of the provinces, which were being used by the chief secretary and home secretary vis-à-vis the police department should be used by the interior ministry.
Before the enforcement of this Police Ordinance 2002, the chief ministers of the provinces had full powers to select their own IGs and chief secretaries with their own choice and consent. During the tenure of Jam Sadiq Ali as Chief Minister of Sindh, the then IG and the chief secretary when resisted an administrative order, both the officers were surrendered to the federal government establishment division within minutes and replaced by others.
The crime situation and the overall law and order situation of all the four provinces under this new system was out of the control of the authorities. Despite the fact that the budget of the police increased and not much additional force was recruited as constables or ASIs throughout this period. Likewise no concrete development was made to control the crime and the law and order situation.
All these incidents of terrorism such as bomb blasts at the US Consulate, Nishter Park, Sheraton Blast and other blasts, besides that scores of incidents of tribal feuds took place in the upper Sindh such as Mehar and Jatio, Lunds, Marfani’s and several other disputes. It has been further noted and observed that hundreds of illegal weapons were smuggled in the province, and which as a result became common and could be seen openly during the gatherings of political rallies and marriage ceremonies.
No improvement was seen after the demolishing of Commissionerate System and the authors of the Police Order 2002 were actually misguided by the government who believed that by removing the Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner, they can achieve the desired results and the law and order situation will be under control by posting a number of DIGs and Regional Police Officers.
When contacted, DIG Saleem Akhtar Siddiqi said that the Commissionerate system was in fact in favour of the police as it was a protective shield for the Police Department, which had a strong cover from the Magistracy whenever they were in trouble. He added that with the Commissioner as head of the division it was a smooth functioning of division because all the resources were in the hands of the commissioner. The commissioner was in the better position to talk to the government and his batch mate in federal government kept sanctioning more budgets to the police for the construction of police stations. Also, during any crises the commissioner, of course without a uniform was physiologically in better position to talk to the protestors and disgruntled elements. Moreover, the tribal feuds used to be tackled by the commissioner and the deputy commissioner with the help of local and other political personalities.
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