KARACHI - Sindh Police Inspector General (IG) Allah Dino Khowaja has asked the provincial government to halt work on the police act until the Supreme Court issues a detailed order in a case where the Sindh government was allowed to carry out police reforms.
The Sindh government recently proposed changes to the Sindh Police Act to empower the provincial home minister to take control of transfers and postings of police officers as well as other affairs of the department and cut powers of the provincial police chief.
In a communiqué dispatched to the Sindh law secretary, the IG said he had gone through the draft law and held consultative meetings with his senior colleagues in Sindh Police on it. “As IG of Sindh Police, it is my considered view that police is one of the most important civil institutions, given the fact that it is saddled with the performance of such functions, inquiry, investigation, detection and prevention of crimes as are critical to the success or failure to the Criminal Justice System,” the communiqué reads. “The role and performance of police are also pivotal to the protection of citizens’ fundamental rights, particularly the right to life, property and honour, as envisaged in Articles 4, 9 and 14 of the constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.”
The communiqué says that therefore, keeping in view the key role of police with regard to maintenance of order and enforcement of fundamental rights of people, the honourable Sindh high court took up the constitution petitions and after exhaustive judicial proceedings passed a historic judgement, now reported as 2018 PLD 8. He said the aforementioned judgment had been subsequently upheld by the apex court through a short order wherein the court had directed that the Sindh Assembly could promulgate a new police act in line with the judgement of the Sindh High Court. The government has not filed any review and the aforesaid judgement has now attained finality, becoming a binding law.
“Before dilating upon the spirit and direction of the aforementioned judgement, I must respectfully state that the detailed order of the apex court is still awaited. Therefore, it would be in the fitness of things if the proposed legislation is delayed until the detailed order is passed so that any conflict with, or deviation from, the judgment may be avoided and unnecessary litigation may be forestalled,” said IG in the communiqué. Delaying the proposed legislation until the apex court releases the detailed judgement is also imperative in order to benefit from the jurisprudential wisdom and practical guidance of the apex court in matters related to reinforcement of police as an institution and protection of citizens’ fundamental rights. It may also be appreciated that the proposed act will have a serious bearing on fundamental rights of people at large. Therefore, propriety demands that draft may be made public in order to seek inputs from different stakeholders – lawyers, academics, rights activists and seasoned serving and retired civil servants or police officers.
“It is therefore requested that the government of Sindh may reconsidered the draft act in the light of my submissions so that the new law should reinforce the institutional, legal, structural and administrative foundations of police force, making it a source or providing protection to the fundamental rights of the citizens as well as ensuring establishment of good order in society as a whole,” the IG concludes.