KP police reforms.

Byline: Mohammad Ali Babakhel

BEFORE the passage of the 25th Constitutional Amendment, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) had different administrative, law-enforcement and legal fabrics. After the amendment and the military operations, KP is experiencing another administrative and legal transition.

The successful implementation of a few reform measures led the provincial government to enact the KP Police Ordinance, 2016, which was followed by the enactment of the KP Police Act, 2017. The law was passed with the aim of making the police service apolitical, operationally autonomous and accountable to civilian oversight. It is a pioneer police law in that it entrusts the IG with complete operational autonomy.

Ideally, law-enforcement agencies are assessed on the basis of operational autonomy, public safety, service delivery and accountability. Though the 2017 act provides a framework for all such essentials, their implementation remains selective. Hence, public safety is compromised. Police Order 2002, and Section 13 (3-VI) of Police Act 2017 also provide the 'internal accountability apparatus' but under Police Order 2002 this either remained dysfunctional or accountability remained selective.

Section 17(6) of the KP Police Act, 2017, obligates the provincial police officer to draft an annual policing plan but this has yet to happen. Similarly, Section 22(2) of the act obligates the district police officer (DPO) to also draft an annual police plan, to be consistent with the overall provincial plan. But both are nowhere in sight, mainly due to the absence of the provincial public safety commission.

The challenges of policing in KP are unique.

Chapter 5 of the 2017 act provides for the composition and functions of the public safety commissions but inherent flaws in the composition of scrutiny committees stalled the process. To select independent members of the provincial public safety commission, the scrutiny committee has to include the chief justice of the Peshawar High Court and chairmen of the defunct Ehtesab Commission and the Public Service Commission.

However, in 2018 the inclusion of the Peshawar High Court chief justice and district judges was challenged in the Peshawar High Court on the plea that it was in violation of the principle of the separation of the executive and judiciary incorporated in Article 175(3) of the Constitution. Moreover, with the KP Ehtesab Commission later dissolved in December...