LAHORE: The fate of new Counter Terrorism Department in Punjab ‘hangs in the balance’ as no breakthrough occurred between the Punjab police and home department regarding administrative control of CTD despite the chief minister’s intervention.

The CTD was earlier supposed to work under the provincial home department.

Officials from both sides have confirmed to Dawn that the Chief Minister’s Secretariat has not yet issued any fresh directive to give administrative control of the new force to the police department.

They say the recruitment process initiated by the home department last month was based on the minutes (an official document) of a meeting chaired by the prime minister for the creation of new force, but both the departments are still awaiting a written directive.

After being dissatisfied with the performance of the existing CTD, the PML-N government has planned to revamp and raise an independent terrorism force without police.

The process of recruitment of 1,500 corporals and a few retired army officers is currently under way who will replace the existing police force. Corporals will soon be imparted nine-month training at the Elite Police Training School, Baidian.

The controversy erupted when the police department got the copy of an unsigned official document having minutes of a meeting for raising new force.

After the home department initiated recruitment process by advertising in a section of the press a few weeks ago and police department learnt that the new department led by a senior police officer would report to the home secretary instead of IGP, it sent a wave of anger and frustration among officers of Police Service of Pakistan (PSP) who held a couple of protest meetings, forcing the chief minister to ‘withdraw’ the decision for the ‘time being’.

Sources in the Punjab police say the Crimes Investigation Department (CID) comprising 500 officials was first revamped and replaced with the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) in 2010 by the Shahbaz-led government with an objective to raise the force up to 3,000, expand it from region to district level, construct all regional offices and four police stations, equip the force with modern gadgetry, surveillance and intelligence equipment and standard training to arrest people wanted in sectarianism and terrorism cases in an efficient way.

They, however, say the force was raised up to 1,700 policemen out of which 300 officials were assigned clerical jobs while most of the field officials available are non-professional, physically unfit, less educated and redundant. As the CTD officials have no separate building/offices in regions they use rooms in all district police lines. Similarly, CTD field force also does not have lockups and intelligence collection equipment so their performance at grass-roots level is not much result-oriented as it must be.

Sources further say according to new plan, staff at each regional headquarter will increase from 60 to 270 personnel while 1,500 policemen and 125 Elite Police officials will go to their parent wings in phases.

They say on the one hand the existing CTD is getting around a Rs125 million annual budget out of which 60 per cent goes to salaries and only seven per cent is spent on intelligence gathering and high-profile raids, while on the other Rs625m have been allocated for the new force under salary head.

“The government cannot get desired results in tackling sectarianism and terrorism at grass-roots levels unless it turns the CTD as well as local police into a resource-rich and technologically advanced force. Although nothing has been done for the capacity building of the CTD, it has not only captured high-profile terrorists but also shared timely intelligence with other law-enforcement agencies about possible terrorist attacks on key installations like the onslaught on GHQ in Rawalpindi,” claims a senior police official.

“The best intelligence collection about anti-state elements at grass-roots level is the job of the local police which is first responder in any situation. The local police station needs manpower and resources first,” the official says.

According to a CTD official, if the government thinks that terrorism is a crime then it is the sole responsibility of police to handle it like other states in the world, otherwise it must be given to any other department of the country.

He says police department is not against recruitment of corporals, but it does not want its control under the home secretary and induction of retired army officers.

Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah says the process of raising a new force is at its initial stage and it will take two and a half years to make the force fully functional. He says first batch of corporals will join the CTD after training.

Admitting that the CTD could not be re-organised the way the government wanted in 2010 due to lack of training and funds, he says the revamp is aimed at creating a force which could work in an independent environment.

The minister says reservations shown by the PSP officers were based on misunderstandings and the CTD would be under the IGP.

He says according to plan 66 per cent of force will be raised from police and 33 per cent from other departments, adding the current CTD will keep discharging duties till the induction of newly-recruited corporals.