LAHORE, July 9: The Rs 3.8 billion police reforms project launched in the Punjab a month ago faces problems which may lead to its failure.

Within a couple of weeks of its launch, a power sharing battle began between supervisory police officers (SPOs) to the rank of ASP/DSP who have been posted at all police stations of the city and SHOs.

“The system has become an old wine in a new bottle,” says a senior police officer, adding that the project has been initiated without taking into confidence real stakeholders - the field police officials. “Some senior officers have drafted the project on their own and enforced it.”

Three factors, according to him, are leading the new project towards a failure. “Absence of rules of business, no training programme and lack of clarity about the administrative set-up are leading the SPOs and the SHOs towards a battle of power sharing.”

Sources say that some of the SPOs and SHOs have been writing to their seniors against each other for the last few weeks. Most of the SHOs have been deprived of their offices and other facilities by their SPOs.

In one case two SPOs—one posted at a police station and the other vacating the office-had an exchange of harsh words over the possession of an official vehicle. One of the SPOs finally drove away with the vehicle after dodging the other.

Sources said that two SPOs posted at police stations inside walled city had been at odds with their SHOs since the launch of the project. One of the SPOs wanted his SHO to increase his share of bribe while the other wanted his SHO not to raid any gambling den in the locality. Sources further said the second SPO had in a meeting asked all the gambling den owners to deal with him directly instead of the SHO.

The general public appears to be at the receiving end again although the project is supposed to extend them quick relief. Public complaints against police, sources said, had increased because of the on-going tussle.

A senior officer said all the 76 SPOs of the city police stations had not been given extra resources/facilities before their postings. Since they were not given offices, they had no option but to occupy offices of their SHOs. Nor the SPOs were given clear guidelines about their jurisdiction and powers.

Meawhile, to monitor SPOs performance, city police chief Additional IGP Khwaja Khalid Farooq on Friday chaired a meeting of all the SPOs and gave them a performa. The performa requires the SPOs to submit every fortnight details of progress on important cases, registration of crime in their areas, community policing, arrest of proclaimed offenders and court absconders, steps taken for crime prevention and detection.

“I want you to give maximum in response to billions of rupees and other facilities the government has provided to the police department just for seeking an improvement in the policing.”

Punjab IGP Ziaul Hasan Khan while addressing senior city police officials a couple of days ago had directed the SPOs to prove their presence by giving positive results. He had also expressed dissatisfaction over the city police working in wake of increasing number of crimes, especially street crime, and complaints of non-registration of cases.

He chaired a meeting again on Sunday at his office, which was attended by senior officers from Sargodha, Gujranwala and Rawalpindi police ranges. He asked field police officers to adopt a public service-oriented policing as envisaged in the chief minister’s police reform programme. “The new system is aimed at restoring people’s confidence in the police department,” he said.

Extra seats of 15 SPs, 93 ASPs/DSPs, 656 sub-inspectors, 593 assistant sub-inspectors, 1,634 head constables and 7,722 constables have been sanctioned by the Punjab government under the reforms programme.

The supervisory police officers, according to the new system, are being posted at each police station in five big cities — Lahore, Rawalpindi, Gujranwala, Multan and Faisalabad. These cities will also have an SP to head each town. Each ASP/DSP, SHO has been given Rs 15,000 in addition to his salary.