Haleem Adil urges Governor to foil bids of police politicizing

F.P. Report

KARACHI: Acting President Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf (PTI) Sindh chapter and Parliamentary Leader in provincial assembly Haleem Adil Sheikh has urged the Governor Sindh Imran Ismail to take notice of bid of the ruling party to politicize Sindh police and foil these conspiracies in the larger interest of people.

In a letter sent to the Governor Sindh on Thursday, Haleem Adil said a professional and non-political policing system is a must for ensuring rule of law and constitution in society. It is an open secret that one of the major reasons of law and order issue in Sindh is the politicizing of Sindh police.

He said that though the apex courts of the country have already ordered for police reforms, but in Sindh, the PPP government is still trying to reduce the powers of Sindh police and make is its political tool to victimize opponents. The Acting President PTI Sindh said that as per media reports, the PPP provincial government was trying to get passed a new Sindh Police Act from Sindh Assembly to curtail the powers of the Inspector General of Police Sindh which were given to the IGP by a judgment of the High Court of Sindh initially and upheld by the Supreme Court of Pakistan when the Sindh Government went into appeal against the order of the Sindh High Court.

Haleem Adil reminded that prior to independence of Pakistan the British masters introduced Police Act 1861 with an intention of maintaining order in their colony, controlling the colonial subjects and collecting revenue. Unfortunately, the same law and system continued after 1947. In 2002 a new law- Police Order 2002 was promulgated by the Federal Government and it was enforceable in all the provinces. In 2011, the Sindh Assembly repealed the Police Order 2002 which was a progressive and modern law and was aimed at creating a professional; service oriented and democratically controlled police organization. In the province of Sindh, the Police Act 1861 was revived.

The Parliamentary Leader in Sindh Assembly mentioned that the repeal of the Police Order 2002 in the High Court of Sindh when the Government of Sindh had sent then IGP Mr. AD Khuwaja on forced leave and the High Court in its judgment accepted the provincial government’s jurisdiction to frame its own law but at the same time made IG Sindh overall in charge of the Sindh Police and bared the Chief Minister from interfering into the administration of Police directed the government to frame rules granting all powers of transfer & posting to the IGP and the judgment gave a tenure of three years to the IGP Sindh. A similar judgment was given by the High Court of Balochistan. The High Court of Punjab also gave security of tenure to the IGP.