LAHORE: Punjab police hierarchy has expressed strong reservations over the establishment of a proposed body with “overarching” powers parallel to the traditional policing system and having politicians’ role in the authority, a top official has confirmed.

Dawn reported last week that the Punjab government is planning to set up a provincial authority under the Punjab Enforcement and Regul­ation Act (Pera) 2024 to oversee the enforcement of special laws relating to price control, hoarding and land management.

As per the draft bill, which is yet to be approved by the assembly, the body will have the mandate to enforce three laws — The Colonisation of Government Lands (Punjab) Act, 1912; The Punjab Prevention of Hoarding Act, 2020; and The Punjab Price Control of Essential Commodities Act, 2024.

Structure

The 18-member body — 10 senior bureaucrats, four Punjab Assembly members including the chief minister, and as many independent members — will also have separate “enforcement stations” parallel to traditional police stations. Its officers will have the power to conduct inspections, patrol and search any person or vehicle, seize articles and goods and make arrests — all core functions of police.

Top cops complain of being kept in dark

According to an official privy to the latest development, Punjab IGP Dr Usman Anwar in an urgent meeting with Chief Secretary Zahid Akhtar Zaman protested over not taking his department into confidence on the matter.

Officials said IGP Anwar strongly opposed the idea of raising a new force comprising 7,000 personnel for the proposed authority and posting them in the 40 notified districts of the Punjab police.

As per the official, the police high-ups have been told that the brain behind the proposed authority was Punjab Planning and Development Board Chairman Nabeel Ahmad Awan. When contacted, the IGP confirmed his meeting with the chief secretary.

Several loopholes

The police department has prepared a detailed presentation outlining several loopholes in the proposed law for the provincial government’s consideration.

IGP Anwar also pointed out a set of flaws and anomalies in the proposed law and the potential challenges it will create.

These issues were mostly related to technical faults in enforcing the laws, improper accountability mechanisms, political interference, potential shortcomings on the administrative and judicial sides and huge expenditures on specialised prosecutors, courts and skilled staff.

The police hierarchy questioned the composition of the authority — with an overwhelming presence of bureaucrats — which had no officer of the Police Service of Pakistan. The role of police was missing even in the district enforcement and regulatory board, according to them.

As a reference, the police official said, a SSP-ranked officer was appointed as the director-general of Anti-Encroachment Force Sindh under the Sindh Public Property (Removal of Encroachment) Act, 2010. Not only that, all members of the force were from the Sindh police department.

The police pointed out that “powerful segments” are invovled in all scheduled offences such as encroachment, public nuisance, price control, hoarding, etc., and any action against them carries a certain risk of resistance, strike, and a law and order situation during and after the operations.

“An armed and uniformed enforcement squad with the power to arrest and lodge FIR without power to deal with the criminal force used against them in the discharge of their duty will render them useless and more susceptible to resistance, mob attacks and further weaken the writ of state,” reads the presentation.

The police force fears that it will have to deal with the “unforeseen risks” if a law and order situation is created after an action by the officers of the proposed body. “Such actions by the agency, in the absence of Punjab police, will open a gateway of complaints to police regarding high handedness by the enforcement squad,” said the official, while quoting the report.

This will “further complicate” the police work. To avoid such a situation, the Punjab police will have to be mobilised with the enforcement squad for every operation, making the whole exercise of forming a specialised force redundant.

The recruitment, training, equipment, logistics (vehicles including prison vans), offices, specialised buildings with lockups, data management system, etc. will have huge associated costs and take several months, even years, to start working efficiently, the presentation said.

While speaking to Dawn, Mr Awan fully defended the proposed authority and rejected the police claim, pointing out that it would not be the first law enforcement agency operating in the province.

He said counter-terrorism department, anti-corruption and some other departments were also enjoying same powers of registering FIR, arresting suspects and investigating them to take them to the court of law. The Punjab police in fact assist these departments or agencies, if and when required, he added.

Mr Awan said the newly proposed authority would deal with some 10 offences and none would be related to street crime. “I don’t know why the police hierarchy was opposing the authority,” he added. He suggested the police focus on street crime, which was their prime domain to provide relief to citizens rather than opposing the proposed authority.

Published in Dawn, September 2nd, 2024