Commissionerate system on the anvil

[Syzash]

Commissionerate system on the anvil

Friday, June 27, 2008
By Salis bin Perwaiz

Karachi

The revival of the Commissioner system is in its final stage and it is expected that the system may be reintroduced within a couple of months throughout the country except Islamabad where the said system already prevails successfully, a source informed.

Sources said that high level meetings were going on in Islamabad in order to revive the Commissioner system in the whole country as crime situations were worsening with time.

The reason for the authority’s emphasis on this system lies in the fact that even after the promulgation of the Police Order 2002 crime could not be effectively controlled, which resulted in the decreased morale of the police.

Sources added that the government was also considering legally empowering deputy commissioners with the magisterial powers of the district magistrate – a power which they enjoyed before the introduction of the 2002 order. Hence the issue of key import is the powers of the district magistrate without which the system will not be able to work successfully.

According to a legal expert, the powers of the district magistrate were curtailed as an exercise in the separation of powers of the executive and the judiciary and hence cannot be given to the deputy commissioner. However, with an Act of Parliament, he can be given limited magisterial powers to maintain the law and order situation in the district such as imposing Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code (Cr PC) which are being enjoyed by the District Police Officers (DPO) as well as the Nazims of the districts.

Besides that, as under the Police Order 2002, Nazims have been given powers to maintain the general law and order situation in the districts, which they can achieve by giving appropriate authority to their respective DPOs. However such powers are limited; the Nazim can not interfere in the transfer process of the postings of Station House Officers (SHO) and other Police Officers.

The same situation prevailed previously as well where the deputy commissioner, although fully empowered to control crime, never interfered in the internal discipline of the Police force or the transfers of the SHOs; these were left up to the SSP to deal with.

The deputy commissioner also used to coordinate between all the other departments of the districts besides the law and order. During emergencies and natural calamities, the deputy commissioner would mobilise all the resources available to him and try to control natural disasters like floods, cyclones, heavy rains etc.

The deputy commissioner also enjoyed power as the district treasury officer as well as the head of the district Red Cross Committee, Civil defense, district armed services board, and the relief committees. The commissioner was the coordinator as well as the administrator the division. He would work along his counterpart – the deputy inspector general of Police – and used to exercise full control over the law and order situation as well as the crime in the division.

Under the Commissionerate system, Karachi was divided into five districts – South, West, East, Malir and Central – each of which were assigned a deputy. Karachi was then further divided into sub divisions being supervised by the Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) who worked alongside the Assistant Superintendent of the Police (ASP) or the Deputy Superintendent of the Police (DSP) and the system worked smoothly in the city.

The head commissioner of the city was Commissioner Karachi who was responsible to the Chief Secretary and the Home Secretary as far as the law and order was concerned. Likewise, the rest of the Sindh was also divided on the same pattern – one commissioner in Hyderabad, and another at Larkana and Sukkur. It may be noted here that the Larkana division was upgraded into a separate division under the tenure of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, the then Prime Minister of Pakistan, and the first commissioner of Larkana was Khalid Kharal while (the late) Pinjal Khan was its DIG.

Sources say that it is the need of the hour to give magisterial powers to deputy commissioners like before, and the government should revive the old divisions and the districts up to the sub-division while the Police Order 2002 should be withdrawn.

However Regional Police Officers should continue – one at Sukkur, another at Hyderabad and a third at Karachi to administratively control the police force and the DIGs working at the divisionary levels. It may be recalled that during the year 1986 the government of Sindh appointed Riaz Ahmed Sipra as the Additional IG Sukkur while the DIG Sukkur was working under him.

salis.perwaiz@thenews.com.pk

Source:http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=120756