LAHORE - Many may not believe it but it is a fact that KP police chief, Nasir Khan Durrani is the most powerful IG the country has ever had in a province.  
On the other hand, KP Chief Minister, Pervez Khattak has earned a name in Pakistan’s history as being the only Chief Executive of a province who has delegated all his powers concerning Police Department to the IGP.
He has no power to recruit and change even a police constable in his province.
This has been confirmed by the KP IG Police Nasir Khan Durrani who says he is the sole decision maker in Police Department.
“The Chief Minister has even surrendered the powers exclusively meant for him under the rules”, Durrani told The Nation on telephone.
Asked if he enjoyed free hand in matters of postings and transfers of senior police cops including the DPOs and DIGs, he said that the Chief Minister had even surrendered his powers to appoint an Additional IG of his own choice. “There is zero political interference in Police Department”, he told this scribe, adding, that it was for the first time in country’s history that a provincial police chief has been allowed to exercise absolute powers in performance of his duties.  
Durrani, who carries rich experience of policing while serving in Punjab on different key positions, has accepted his present posting on the condition that there would be no political interference in his domain.
In a very short span of time, Nasir Khan has been able to change the perception of police force in KP which is now more responsive to the public complaints than before.
He has dismissed from service some 500 bad cops including two DSPs, thereby sending a strong message to other cops to do their duties honestly and diligently.  
Sharing some details of reforms he was going to introduce in Police Department, he said that the recruitment of constables was being done through NTS with psychological analysis of prospecting candidates being given top most priority.
The specialised schools like investigation school, intelligence school and the one dealing with explosive handling have been activated after a long time, he added.
He said measures were being taken to improve public contact with police through introduction of SMS service.
All citizens, he added, would be given a cell phone number to register their complaints by sending an SMS.  
The Investigation Officer would himself contact the aggrieved person later on after verification of facts, he stated. Every complaint would become part of the police data system, he said.
Nasir said crime fighting laws were being enacted to improve functioning of police on modern lines.
He said dispute resolution councils were also being revived to resolve the issues at the earliest stage. This would also reduce the burden on courts, he said.
Now as the KP government has set an example for other provinces to follow, it has raised some fundamental questions to be answered especially in the context of Punjab whose government claims credit for good governance. It also talks of changing the thana culture quite often.  
Is the Punjab IGP, Mushtaq Ahmad Sukhera as powerful as his KPK counterpart? Is it not true that Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif himself interviews police officers before posting them in various districts? Is it not true that SHOs here are being posted on the recommendations of local MNAs and MPAs?. Is it not true that despite tall claims and being in power for the last over two decades, the PML-N Government in Punjab has not been able to change thana culture? Will the worthy Chief Minister Punjab answer these questions?.