Khattak says changes to make KP force more efficient and responsive

Amendments approved to Police Reforms Act

PESHAWAR: A meeting chaired by Chief Minister Pervez Khattak on Wednesday approved amendments to the Police Reforms Act to make the force more efficient, effective, people-friendly and responsive.

According to an official handout, the new amendments would be tabled in the provincial assembly for incorporation into the proposed act. Addressing the meeting, the chief minister said his government would make legislation for the police reforms. He said the province had multi-faceted challenges and the reforms were for the benefit of the people.

“The reforms will promote crime fighting in the province,” he said while addressing the participants of the meeting. The meeting was attended by Minister for Local Government Inayatullah Khan, Minister for Irrigation Sikandar Hayat Sherpao, Minister for Elementary and Secondary Education Mohammad Atif Khan, Minister for Public Health Engineering Shah Farman, Minister for Law Imtiaz Shahid Qureshi and other concerned authorities.

Those at the meeting took for debate the contentious issues and the ones agreed upon by the committee of the provincial cabinet formed earlier. The participants had a threadbare review of different sections aimed at making the police an apolitical, autonomous and independent body accountable internally and externally.

The meeting was told that the draft bill 2016 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 from within a panel of three. It also agreed to the autonomy of IGP in postings and transfers, etc.

The chief minister said his government would never interfere in the professional responsibilities of police force but it did not mean that there would be no check and balance mechanism.

He said there would certainly be multi-layer checks on police in the new amendments to make the force more professional, efficient and responsive to the crime fighting and complaints of the people.

The chief minister said 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 to reduce the trust deficit.

He said with the proposed amendments, the government had tried to get the police out of the cocoon and enabled it to have a greater space for delivery in consonance with the people’s expectations.

Pervez Khattak said that financial checks on all institutions were part of the government agenda to stop the misuse of resources and make all institutions responsive to the concept of good governance as promised by his government.

“The institutions will be accountable at all tiers of governance. Therefore the weaknesses in the existing system has been removed and made more consistent to the present-day needs and requirements,” he added.

The chief minister assured a separate police structure and asked the quarters 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 Public Service Commission and will have to be graduates.