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Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) police have submitted draft legislation before the provincial government for police accountability, reliable sources, quoting draft of the proposed bill of legislation, disclosed.
A copy of the draft is with The News. The model proposed by the police appears to be a balanced piece of legislation aimed at making Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police accountable before public institutions instead of individuals while addressing the major issues confronting almost all police forces in the country.
The provincial government’s concurrence with the theme of draft law proposed by police department bears bright prospects for policing culture in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.According to sources, the proposals for police reforms were presented before the Chief Minister by Inspector General of Police Nasir Khan Durrani a couple of days back.
With Police Order 2002 as its basis, the proposed amendments are said to have laid unprecedented emphasis upon accountability of police, both internal and external. In addition to providing multiple external accountability forums for police, the proposals also contain measures for formalizing community engagement, public service and professional development initiatives undertaken by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police during the past two years.
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police, in addition to suggesting the revamping of existing internal accountability mechanisms has proposed devolving external accountability of police to different public bodies to be established at all governance tiers.
By laying extra ordinary focus on external accountability through credible public bodies, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police has emerged as the first public sector entity to have voluntarily offered itself for external accountability before public bodies.
The sources qouting the draft said the police department in its proposal has suggested replacing the archaic and singular bureaucratic oversight with the multiple public oversight bodies like Local Government forums, District Public Safety Commissions, Criminal Justice Coordination Committees, Regional Police Complaint Authorities and Provincial Public Safety Commissions.
In addition to the multiple external accountability forums, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police have also recommended the establishment of an Internal Accountability Bureau (IAB) within the department to oversee the internal accountability process within police.
“The IAB which will be headed by an officer of the rank of Additional Inspector General of Police will be responsible for taking action on complaints and safeguarding fundamental human rights by exercising vigilance on any reports of human rights violation,” said the bill, adding, the IAB will comprise two different wings i.e “Complaints & Enquiry” and “Human Rights Vigilance Cell (HRV)”.
The Complaints & Enquiry section will conduct enquiries and take action into complaints pertaining to police. The Human Rights Vigilance cell will be responsible for keeping a check on instances of human rights violations by taking stern action against reported violations.
The proposed external accountability through local government forums provides for accountability through district assemblies and local government representatives.
“In its proposal for external accountability before local bodies, the police have proposed that the DPO shall be answerable to District Assemblies for law and order purposes. Just like the Provincial Assembly, the District Assemblies who will hold special bi-annual sessions to discuss the district’s law & order situation where the DPOs will brief the house on performance of district police,” said in the proposed draft.
The District Assemblies, if not satisfied with the performance of a DPO, may seek his pre-mature transfer by passing a resolution to the effect with two-third majority. A resolution so passed will be sent to the IGP who will take a decision within stipulated time frame. In case the IGP differs with the demand for pre-mature transfer of DPO the reference will automatically be sent to Provincial Public Safety Commission whose decision will be binding on the police command.
Furthermore, the draft legislation also contains a mechanism for providing an effective role to the local bodies representatives in redressal of public complaints. The heads of village/neighbourhood councils, tehsil councils and district councils will have the authority to forward public complaints to the SHO, SDPO and DPO respectively and these officers will be bound to apprise the public representatives about the action taken on such complaints within fifteen days. Any failure on part of a police officer to report about the action taken within stipulated period will amount to misconduct attracting departmental action.
In addition to the accountability through local government forums, the draft legislation also provides for external accountability of police through three different commissions comprising of citizenry at district, divisional and provincial level.
The draft maintained that at district level, the district police will also be accountable before the District Public Safety Commissions (DPSC). In order to ensure the public character and political neutrality of the commissions, the police department has proposed that the commissions shall be housed in the District Assemblies, no government functionary shall be a part of the commission and the commissions shall be constituted by equal representation of public representatives (both treasury and opposition) from the District Assembly and independent members to be selected by a panel headed by District Session Judge.
The independent members will include retired government servants, professionals, representative of business community and one general member. The DPSCs will have the mandate to undertake periodic review of the law & order situation, visit and inspect police stations for checking illegal detentions and undertake periodic scientific surveys for gauging police perception. In addition to these, the DPSCs will also participate as observers/watchdog in all police procurements amounting more than Rs 0.5 Million.
In order to look into complaints against police officers, the police have proposed establishment of Regional Police Complaints Authorities (RPCA) at divisional level. Explaining the significance of RPCAs, the IGP KP has reportedly said that accountability of senior police officials which previously used to be undertaken at provincial level will be devolved at divisional level with the establishment of these authorities. The police chief is reported to have further added that this devolution will in turn provide relief to complainants.
Given the significant role of the RPCA members and to prevent any abuse of due process, it has been suggested that the members shall be selected through the Provincial Public Service Commission and no government servant shall be part of these authorities. It has been proposed that the authorities shall comprise of three members and its members shall include a retired judge/judicial officer, a retired government servant not below the rank of BS 19 and an executive from private sector having equivalent administrative/management experience. The police have proposed that members of these authorities shall be entitled to remuneration package.
These authorities will be entitled to receive complaints against police. The authorities will be competent to refer these complaints to respective DPOs for enquiry within a stipulated period and can even conduct their own enquiry by co-opting a police representative if they are not satisfied with enquiry findings of DPO in a complaint referred by them. Moreover, the RPCAs will also be competent to conduct enquiries referred to it by the Chief Minister, Provincial Public Safety Commission and the Inspector General of Police. Recommendations made by the RPCAs will be binding on the relevant police authorities.
At the provincial level, the police department has recommended the establishment of a high-powered 13 member Provincial Public Safety Commission (PPSC) to act as an external accountability forum. Being the highest forum for external accountability of police special emphasis has reportedly been laid upon ensuring equal representation for all segments of society in the commission.
The membership of PPSC which will be comprising of 13 members has been divided into three categories namely elected representatives, retired governments servants and representatives of civil society. Each category will have four members. The category for elected representatives will comprise of four members of provincial assembly, two from treasury benches and two from opposition. Likewise, the group of retired government servants will consist of a retired Major General, retired judge of High Court, retired Inspector General and retired civil servant not below the rank of BS-21. The category of civil society representatives will comprise of one seat each for professionals, business community representative, minorities and one general seat. Given the sensitive nature of decisions proposed to be taken at this forum it has been proposed that Advocate General shall be its ex-officio member.
The independent members belonging to group of retired government servants and civil society members will be selected by a panel headed by the Chief Justice of Peshawar High Court and consisting of Chairman Public Service Commission and nominee of Provincial government.
The PPSC has been proposed to be responsible for conducting bi-annual performance review of provincial police force, conducting enquiries on complaints against senior police officers and acting as observer/watch dog in centralized police purchases conducted at provincial level. In addition the PPSC will also be responsible assisting police department in redressal of its issues/grievances and submitting annual police performance reports to the Chief Minister and the Provincial Assembly.
Similarly, the district police will also be accountable before the Criminal Justice Coordination Committee headed by the District Session Judge and comprising of all stakeholders of the criminal justice system, said in the draft.
According to sources the draft legislation proposed by police provides for formalizing community engagement and participation in policing at the grass root level through constitution of Police Liaison Councils (PLCs) in each village/neighbourhood councils.
These PLCs comprising of 6 to 10 members will draw equal representation from elected members of recently elected village/neighborhood councils and independent/well reputed citizens of the area. These PLCs will have one year tenure and their members will be notified by respective DPOs in consultation with SDPOs/community members after clearance from Special Branch.
“SHOs will be responsible for maintaining a close liaison with PLC members and they will be responsible for keeping a close watch on their surroundings and informing police about new tenants/settlers in their areas, instances of misuse of loudspeaker for hate speech, local enmities and tensions and any other anti social activity affecting general public. Furthermore, members of PLC will be mandated with assisting police in handling public disorder situations and formulating strategies for crime prevention in respective village councils/neighborhoods,” said in the proposed draft.
In its proposal placed before the Provincial Government the police have recommended formalization through legislation of numerous public service projects undertaken by the department during the last two years.
These include Dispute Resolution Councils (councils comprising of respected, non-controversial and apolitical members of the public established at the level of each police station for facilitating amicable resolution of disputes), Police Assistance Lines (public facilitation centers established at every district headquarter for providing one-window day to day police services to citizenry in a comfortable environment) and Police Access Service ( providing prompt access to public to the highest police command through sms/email and other IT tools for redressal of their grievances).
The police department has reportedly impressed upon the Provincial Government that keeping in view the large scale public applause for these public service projects their formalization through legislation is essential to ensure their perpetuity.
The draft legislation submitted by police also contains a number of proposals for its professional growth and development. The said proposals are reportedly aimed at formalizing the recruitment and capacity building processes within police force. These include outsourcing of police recruitment process to accredited professional recruiting agencies like NTS/ETEA; creation of specialized unit like Counter Terrorism Department, Special Combat Unit and Rapid Response Force; formalization of specialized training schools already established by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police for capacity building of its personnel and linkage of promotions with training courses.
According to sources, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police while voluntarily offering itself for enhanced public accountability before multiple public bodies have also reiterated the importance of formalizing operational autonomy for police through this proposed legislation. The police command has reportedly contended that the dream of having a competent, politically neutral and democratically accountable police force will however remain an elusive dream until the reform proposals are aimed at shifting “accountability by individual” to “accountability by democratic institutions” and “strengthening of institutions instead of individuals” thereby formalizing the operational autonomy of police, insulating it from the exploitation of individuals and making it accountable before independent public institutions.
It has been learnt that the Chief Minister and his cabinet committee have given consent to the most of the proposals and has also constituted a special committee to vet the proposed draft from the legal point of view.
Inspector General of Police (IGP) Nasir Khan Durrani when contacted by this scribe for his comments, confirmed the report saying that the proposed draft has been prepared after exhaustive deliberations with different segments of the civil society and the police officers and it took almost two years to finalize it. He added that the most of the components in the draft are the ones which have already been practised and demonstrated successfully.
The IGP apprised about the general grievances of the public against the police, saying the public perceive police as a politicized entity lacking operational autonomy and professionalism; marred by corruption; high handed, un-accountable and disconnected from the community. He explained that this draft has been prepared with a diagnostic approach catering to redress the public grievances. The major pillars of the proposed draft are: professionalism, apolitical; operational and administrative autonomy; transparency; accountability to the public; and enhanced community engagement. The proposed law is based on best international practices duly adapted to the environment and culture of the province.
Police reforms bill lands in KP Assembly - thenews.com.pk
A copy of the draft is with The News. The model proposed by the police appears to be a balanced piece of legislation aimed at making Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police accountable before public institutions instead of individuals while addressing the major issues confronting almost all police forces in the country.
The provincial government’s concurrence with the theme of draft law proposed by police department bears bright prospects for policing culture in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.According to sources, the proposals for police reforms were presented before the Chief Minister by Inspector General of Police Nasir Khan Durrani a couple of days back.
With Police Order 2002 as its basis, the proposed amendments are said to have laid unprecedented emphasis upon accountability of police, both internal and external. In addition to providing multiple external accountability forums for police, the proposals also contain measures for formalizing community engagement, public service and professional development initiatives undertaken by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police during the past two years.
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police, in addition to suggesting the revamping of existing internal accountability mechanisms has proposed devolving external accountability of police to different public bodies to be established at all governance tiers.
By laying extra ordinary focus on external accountability through credible public bodies, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police has emerged as the first public sector entity to have voluntarily offered itself for external accountability before public bodies.
The sources qouting the draft said the police department in its proposal has suggested replacing the archaic and singular bureaucratic oversight with the multiple public oversight bodies like Local Government forums, District Public Safety Commissions, Criminal Justice Coordination Committees, Regional Police Complaint Authorities and Provincial Public Safety Commissions.
In addition to the multiple external accountability forums, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police have also recommended the establishment of an Internal Accountability Bureau (IAB) within the department to oversee the internal accountability process within police.
“The IAB which will be headed by an officer of the rank of Additional Inspector General of Police will be responsible for taking action on complaints and safeguarding fundamental human rights by exercising vigilance on any reports of human rights violation,” said the bill, adding, the IAB will comprise two different wings i.e “Complaints & Enquiry” and “Human Rights Vigilance Cell (HRV)”.
The Complaints & Enquiry section will conduct enquiries and take action into complaints pertaining to police. The Human Rights Vigilance cell will be responsible for keeping a check on instances of human rights violations by taking stern action against reported violations.
The proposed external accountability through local government forums provides for accountability through district assemblies and local government representatives.
“In its proposal for external accountability before local bodies, the police have proposed that the DPO shall be answerable to District Assemblies for law and order purposes. Just like the Provincial Assembly, the District Assemblies who will hold special bi-annual sessions to discuss the district’s law & order situation where the DPOs will brief the house on performance of district police,” said in the proposed draft.
The District Assemblies, if not satisfied with the performance of a DPO, may seek his pre-mature transfer by passing a resolution to the effect with two-third majority. A resolution so passed will be sent to the IGP who will take a decision within stipulated time frame. In case the IGP differs with the demand for pre-mature transfer of DPO the reference will automatically be sent to Provincial Public Safety Commission whose decision will be binding on the police command.
Furthermore, the draft legislation also contains a mechanism for providing an effective role to the local bodies representatives in redressal of public complaints. The heads of village/neighbourhood councils, tehsil councils and district councils will have the authority to forward public complaints to the SHO, SDPO and DPO respectively and these officers will be bound to apprise the public representatives about the action taken on such complaints within fifteen days. Any failure on part of a police officer to report about the action taken within stipulated period will amount to misconduct attracting departmental action.
In addition to the accountability through local government forums, the draft legislation also provides for external accountability of police through three different commissions comprising of citizenry at district, divisional and provincial level.
The draft maintained that at district level, the district police will also be accountable before the District Public Safety Commissions (DPSC). In order to ensure the public character and political neutrality of the commissions, the police department has proposed that the commissions shall be housed in the District Assemblies, no government functionary shall be a part of the commission and the commissions shall be constituted by equal representation of public representatives (both treasury and opposition) from the District Assembly and independent members to be selected by a panel headed by District Session Judge.
The independent members will include retired government servants, professionals, representative of business community and one general member. The DPSCs will have the mandate to undertake periodic review of the law & order situation, visit and inspect police stations for checking illegal detentions and undertake periodic scientific surveys for gauging police perception. In addition to these, the DPSCs will also participate as observers/watchdog in all police procurements amounting more than Rs 0.5 Million.
In order to look into complaints against police officers, the police have proposed establishment of Regional Police Complaints Authorities (RPCA) at divisional level. Explaining the significance of RPCAs, the IGP KP has reportedly said that accountability of senior police officials which previously used to be undertaken at provincial level will be devolved at divisional level with the establishment of these authorities. The police chief is reported to have further added that this devolution will in turn provide relief to complainants.
Given the significant role of the RPCA members and to prevent any abuse of due process, it has been suggested that the members shall be selected through the Provincial Public Service Commission and no government servant shall be part of these authorities. It has been proposed that the authorities shall comprise of three members and its members shall include a retired judge/judicial officer, a retired government servant not below the rank of BS 19 and an executive from private sector having equivalent administrative/management experience. The police have proposed that members of these authorities shall be entitled to remuneration package.
These authorities will be entitled to receive complaints against police. The authorities will be competent to refer these complaints to respective DPOs for enquiry within a stipulated period and can even conduct their own enquiry by co-opting a police representative if they are not satisfied with enquiry findings of DPO in a complaint referred by them. Moreover, the RPCAs will also be competent to conduct enquiries referred to it by the Chief Minister, Provincial Public Safety Commission and the Inspector General of Police. Recommendations made by the RPCAs will be binding on the relevant police authorities.
At the provincial level, the police department has recommended the establishment of a high-powered 13 member Provincial Public Safety Commission (PPSC) to act as an external accountability forum. Being the highest forum for external accountability of police special emphasis has reportedly been laid upon ensuring equal representation for all segments of society in the commission.
The membership of PPSC which will be comprising of 13 members has been divided into three categories namely elected representatives, retired governments servants and representatives of civil society. Each category will have four members. The category for elected representatives will comprise of four members of provincial assembly, two from treasury benches and two from opposition. Likewise, the group of retired government servants will consist of a retired Major General, retired judge of High Court, retired Inspector General and retired civil servant not below the rank of BS-21. The category of civil society representatives will comprise of one seat each for professionals, business community representative, minorities and one general seat. Given the sensitive nature of decisions proposed to be taken at this forum it has been proposed that Advocate General shall be its ex-officio member.
The independent members belonging to group of retired government servants and civil society members will be selected by a panel headed by the Chief Justice of Peshawar High Court and consisting of Chairman Public Service Commission and nominee of Provincial government.
The PPSC has been proposed to be responsible for conducting bi-annual performance review of provincial police force, conducting enquiries on complaints against senior police officers and acting as observer/watch dog in centralized police purchases conducted at provincial level. In addition the PPSC will also be responsible assisting police department in redressal of its issues/grievances and submitting annual police performance reports to the Chief Minister and the Provincial Assembly.
Similarly, the district police will also be accountable before the Criminal Justice Coordination Committee headed by the District Session Judge and comprising of all stakeholders of the criminal justice system, said in the draft.
According to sources the draft legislation proposed by police provides for formalizing community engagement and participation in policing at the grass root level through constitution of Police Liaison Councils (PLCs) in each village/neighbourhood councils.
These PLCs comprising of 6 to 10 members will draw equal representation from elected members of recently elected village/neighborhood councils and independent/well reputed citizens of the area. These PLCs will have one year tenure and their members will be notified by respective DPOs in consultation with SDPOs/community members after clearance from Special Branch.
“SHOs will be responsible for maintaining a close liaison with PLC members and they will be responsible for keeping a close watch on their surroundings and informing police about new tenants/settlers in their areas, instances of misuse of loudspeaker for hate speech, local enmities and tensions and any other anti social activity affecting general public. Furthermore, members of PLC will be mandated with assisting police in handling public disorder situations and formulating strategies for crime prevention in respective village councils/neighborhoods,” said in the proposed draft.
In its proposal placed before the Provincial Government the police have recommended formalization through legislation of numerous public service projects undertaken by the department during the last two years.
These include Dispute Resolution Councils (councils comprising of respected, non-controversial and apolitical members of the public established at the level of each police station for facilitating amicable resolution of disputes), Police Assistance Lines (public facilitation centers established at every district headquarter for providing one-window day to day police services to citizenry in a comfortable environment) and Police Access Service ( providing prompt access to public to the highest police command through sms/email and other IT tools for redressal of their grievances).
The police department has reportedly impressed upon the Provincial Government that keeping in view the large scale public applause for these public service projects their formalization through legislation is essential to ensure their perpetuity.
The draft legislation submitted by police also contains a number of proposals for its professional growth and development. The said proposals are reportedly aimed at formalizing the recruitment and capacity building processes within police force. These include outsourcing of police recruitment process to accredited professional recruiting agencies like NTS/ETEA; creation of specialized unit like Counter Terrorism Department, Special Combat Unit and Rapid Response Force; formalization of specialized training schools already established by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police for capacity building of its personnel and linkage of promotions with training courses.
According to sources, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police while voluntarily offering itself for enhanced public accountability before multiple public bodies have also reiterated the importance of formalizing operational autonomy for police through this proposed legislation. The police command has reportedly contended that the dream of having a competent, politically neutral and democratically accountable police force will however remain an elusive dream until the reform proposals are aimed at shifting “accountability by individual” to “accountability by democratic institutions” and “strengthening of institutions instead of individuals” thereby formalizing the operational autonomy of police, insulating it from the exploitation of individuals and making it accountable before independent public institutions.
It has been learnt that the Chief Minister and his cabinet committee have given consent to the most of the proposals and has also constituted a special committee to vet the proposed draft from the legal point of view.
Inspector General of Police (IGP) Nasir Khan Durrani when contacted by this scribe for his comments, confirmed the report saying that the proposed draft has been prepared after exhaustive deliberations with different segments of the civil society and the police officers and it took almost two years to finalize it. He added that the most of the components in the draft are the ones which have already been practised and demonstrated successfully.
The IGP apprised about the general grievances of the public against the police, saying the public perceive police as a politicized entity lacking operational autonomy and professionalism; marred by corruption; high handed, un-accountable and disconnected from the community. He explained that this draft has been prepared with a diagnostic approach catering to redress the public grievances. The major pillars of the proposed draft are: professionalism, apolitical; operational and administrative autonomy; transparency; accountability to the public; and enhanced community engagement. The proposed law is based on best international practices duly adapted to the environment and culture of the province.
Police reforms bill lands in KP Assembly - thenews.com.pk
