Forgotten agenda - Newspaper - DAWN.

COM 9/25/20, 9(55 AM

Forgotten agenda
Jannat Ali Kalyar

The writer is a barrister.

THE frequent and arbitrary transfer and posting of six IGPs and three
CCPOs in the last two years at the behest of the Punjab government
highlights the flagrant abuse of legitimate, democratic and legal
authority. There are explicit statutory obligations in the Police Order
(2002) that govern the appointment, tenure, transfer and posting of
both offices, and there are corresponding decisions of the superior
courts. The Punjab government, however, is unwilling to fetter its
stranglehold over the police and continues to subvert the Police Order
as well as court directions.

Prior to the Police Order, the Police Act (1861) governed Pakistanʼs police
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forces. It was a colonial legacy, enacted after the War of Independence of

1857 to crush dissent and any support for self-government. Hence, it
entrusted the superintendence of police to the political executive that could,
inter alia, decide the tenure of the head of police or the IG and remove the
officer without giving any reason. The police were thus reduced to a tool that
served the political elite instead of providing essential services to ensure
peace and the security of citizens.

The Police Order repealed and replaced the Police Act purportedly to
depoliticise and democratise the police force by minimising illegitimate
political influence and redefining its roles, functions and duties to transform
it into a “professional, service-oriented”force, “accountable to the people”.

Whereas, ostensibly, the depoliticisation of the “ill-equipped, poorly trained,

deeply politicised and chronically corrupt” police remains one of the top
(forgotten) agendas in the manifesto of the ruling party, the latter has failed
to replicate KPʼs ‘successfulʼ police model nationally. In gross violation of the
law, it continues to prematurely and arbitrarily post and transfer IGPs and
CCPOs with impunity and has failed to constitute the public safety
commissions at the district, provincial and national level as mandated by the
Police Order.

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Police have been reduced to serving the political elite.

The raison dʼêtre of these commissions is devolution of control over police to

depoliticise the force and to ensure it functions in a transparent, fair and
democratic manner. However, in their absence, power remains concentrated
in the political executive to the detriment of the public at large.

This was also stressed by former chief justice of the Lahore High Court

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Mansoor Ali Shah (Muhammad Razzaq case), who stated that the failure to
constitute public safety commissions was against the public interest. He
directed the province to establish provincial and the district commissions
and to appoint the IGP strictly in accordance with the Police Order ensuring
the security of his tenure.

While the Punjab government at the time appointed the IGP in compliance
with the court order, contempt continued in the form of premature and
arbitrary transfers and postings and the non-constitution of commissions.

Comparably, the Sindh High Court in the A.D. Khawaja removal case
delineated the role of the Sindh government and the federal government as
regards transfers and postings and directed them to reinstate the IGP to his
position. The court stated that the IGP was entitled to the benefit of the term
of his post and that removal would only be justified if there were “compelling
reasons”within the parameters of the rule (Sindh Act, 2011).

The recent controversy over the transfer and posting of the current IGP and
CCPO has reignited the debate on the unstructured discretion still exercised
by the political executive in destabilising the police structure and obstructing
meaningful reforms.

In this instance, too, as expected, all mandatory requirements laid down in

the Police Order were flouted such as the security of the three-year tenure.
Further, the current IGP and CCPO were illegally appointed through a
unilateral order of the secretary of the Cabinet Division.

The Supreme Court in the Mustafa Impex case stated that power vested in
the federal government, is vested in the cabinet as a collective identity
constituting the prime minister and federal ministers. The same principle is
applicable to the provincial government which constitutes the chief minister
and provincial ministers.
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Therefore, in the absence of prior approval of the respective cabinets, the

actions of the chief minister or prime minister of their own volition, or anyone
on their behalf, are ultra vires. Such unfettered discretion seeks to undo the
constitutional structure that withholds the use of executive power beyond
what is established by the law.

There is no doubt that political interference in police functions hinders the

rule of law and can seriously undermine the enforcement of fundamental
rights. Therefore, the arbitrary and premature transfer and posting of heads
of police must not be trivialised as a political issue. It is a human rights issue
that warrants our immediate attention.

The writer is a barrister.

Published in Dawn, September 25th, 2020

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