Punjab’s soft ‘no’ to Police Reform package

ISLAMABAD: Punjab government has softly declined to implement Police Reform package, which was got approved from the Prime Minister Imran Khan, allegedly in a hush-hush manner shortly before his departure for Saudi Arabia and US. While the federal government through interior ministry asked the Punjab government a few days back to immediately implement the police reform package, the latter expressed its reservations to certain measures approved by the prime minister without proper consultation with the stakeholders.

Informed sources said that while the federal government wanted the implementation of these reforms in Punjab through an ordinance by Sept 30th, the provincial government assigned a high level committee to review the reform package for police and return to the center with its recommended changes to the police reforms.

The Committee, which will review these reforms, will be headed by the Punjab law minister and include three provincial ministers, chief secretary and inspector general of police, and two retired officers- an ex-chief secretary and a retired IGP. The Committee has been tasked with completing its deliberation within a week.

Punjab official sources said following a presentation from the interior secretary, the Police Reform package was given go-ahead by the prime minister. It is said although the Punjab law minister was present during the presentation, neither the chief minister nor the provincial inspector general police was there. Officers from the Police Service of Pakistan and Punjab police are very upset with the way the Police Reform package has been got approved from the prime minister.

The sources said the provincial police officers approached both Chief Minister Usman Buzdar and Law Minister Basharat Raja and apprised them how their rival in the civil service had managed all this in a hush manner.

The PSP officers are of the view that through these reforms the ex-DMG (now Pakistan Administrative Service) actually wanted back its control over police as used to be in the past since the colonial era.

A senior official source from Punjab told The News that the interior secretary got approved the Police Reform package from the prime minister without sharing the proposals with Punjab and the police department.

It is said that the Prime Minister Imran Khan early this year had constituted a Police Reform Committee under interior secretary and comprising chief secretaries and IGPs of Punjab and KP as its members. It is said that the committee was assigned to prepare reforms for Punjab police in line with the reforms introduced in the department in KP during the last PTI government.