Cops oppose proposed executive magistracy

PESHAWAR: Police across the country have joined hands to oppose the revival of Executive Magistracy under the purposed 27th Constitutional Amendment. Senior police officials termed the proposal to restore the Executive Magistracy system a “step backward” that could create confusion, weaken criminal justice, and undo the professional policing structure established after the 2001 reforms. The cops from all the provinces have said police have been operating effectively under a unified command structure since the abolition of the District Magistrate system. Any change, it warns, would “bring confusion and chaos” in the criminal justice system and create friction between police and civil administration.

They said a 1987 committee comprising one Police Service of Pakistan (PSP) and one Pakistan Administrative Service (PAS) officer, which concluded that dual control, delays in decision-making, and non-professional command were the main reasons behind the failure of the old system. Police force are currently leading the fight against terrorism in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan with professionalism and dedication, while the district administration had failed to maintain order in the past.

They argued any tinkering with the command structure of the police will disrupt counterterrorism efforts “There is a serious challenge of terrorism and cross border attacks especially in Balochistan and KP with the police giving sacrifices side by side with the security forcs. Gestures of distrust, dis-empowerment, and taking away the needed operational autonomy of the police to fight this war will seriously hurt the commitment and morale of police, at a critical time,” said the police officers of the country.

They argued that PAS officers are not trained for policing, operations, investigation, prosecution so it does not appear logical to have police commanders who are not themself police officers.

“There are, and have been, areas where policing function was not with the administration. Is the policing function in these areas performing better or otherwise,” argued police officers of different provinces. “Is the system in islamabad any better than Rawalpindi, Lahore, Karachi, Quetta,” asked these cops.

They said external accountability of police force must lie with the political leadership and the people and not with other fellow bureaucrats. “Reverting to the bygone era of dual command (shattering the unity of operational command), which had been very rightly rectified by Gen Pervez Musharraf in 2001, will open the doors to confusion, delays, inaction, friction, and internal conspiracies,” continued the senior cops.

They added the PAS officers supervise around 40 departments, questioning is it appropriate to burden them with command of another busy department like the Police? They also questioned the performance of those 40 depts any better than the police dept.

“Historically the British did have the magistracy system in colonial sub-continent but not in their own lands and the other colonies also later reverted to modern policing even going to the Police Commissionerate system which gives far more operational autonomy to the police and makes them more professional and people centric,” the police officers argued. They hinted the judiciary will have serious reservations against executive magistracy since it intrudes on their independent and august domain.