Civil society activists want ‘police reforms, not restoration of an individual’

Say their petition filed in SHC does not seek stay of AD Khawaja’s removal as IGP

Clarifying their position, civil society activists who have filed a constitution petition in the Sindh High Court (SHC) for police reforms, said on Thursday that there was no intention in the petition to seek a stay of AD Khawaja as Sindh inspector general of police, but they want a long-term and sustainable local police system in the province.

The SHC had issued a stay order on Wednesday at a hearing of petition against the removal of IGP Khawaja on the civil society activists’ petition.  

“Our lawyer, Faisal Siddique, had been working on the petition for a long time and it was a coincidence that the matter came on the occasion of sending the Sindh police chief on forced leave by the Sindh government,” said Karamat Ali, executive director of the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education & Research (PILER), at a press conference at the Karachi Press Club. 

Rights activist Zahid Farooq, singer Shahzad Roy and civil society member Nazim F Haji also spoke.

“We do not want restoration of an individual. We want police reforms,” Ali clarified.   

“In the petition’s prayer, the petitioners have sought the SHC help that the Sindh (Repeal of the Police Order, 2002 & Revival of the Police Act, 1861) Act, 2011, be declared as unconstitutional, without jurisdiction, illegal and of no legal effect.  The Police Order 2002 is already enforced at the federal level and the SHC has been requested that is it is constitutionally and legally valid and in force and has not been repealed by ‘The Sindh (Repeal of the Police Order, 2002 & Revival of the Police Act, 1861) Act, 2011’,” he said.

The petitioners have also asked the SHC to order the constitution of a broad-based independent commission, headed by a retired high court judge or a Supreme Court Judge and comprising relevant and respected civil society persons to be nominated by the SHC (at the cost of the provincial government), to direct the commission to supervise the effective implementation of the Police Order 2002, including the formation of all institutions/commission/authority/committee, envisaged in the order, within a period of six months from the date as set by thiscourt, and to submit a compliance report to this court for further orders.

Farooq, who is also joint director of the Urban Resource Center, said that only solution that could lead to a sustainable police system was the introduction of community policing.

“The Police Order 2002 involves the community’s role in policing functions to resolve the complaints of the citizens, but it has never implemented since then,” he said.