Re: Naya KPK | Initiatives & Progress
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KP Police turning into a role model
after achieving notable successes
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Umar Cheema
Monday, March 10, 2014
From Print Edition
ISLAMABAD: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police is poised to become a model law enforcement agency as it is undergoing a radical transformation by battling challenges on all fronts ranging from its capacity of fighting terrorism to fixing endemic corruption within and most importantly its de-politicisation.
In his five-month at the helm, IG KP Nasir Durrani has taken important policy decisions fully supported by PTI government to revamp the police of this front-line province against terrorism that shares approximately 1,600 kilometre-long border with tribal area. As many as 751 personnel and officers of KP police have been killed and 1,696 injured since 2007.
Now infused with new spirit, KP police has traced 129 cases of terrorism in which 144 terrorists were arrested and 25 were killed in encounters with police in six-month duration.
The police have also repulsed 57 militant attacks in last four months and killed the attackers in many cases.
There has not been a single complaint of illegal detention or staged encounters against the Police force in last five-month.
The measures introduced by Police chief include the setting up of Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD), Counter-Kidnapping Cell (CKC), and technology initiatives like digitisation of criminal record, geo-tagging of heinous crimes and criminals, Police Intelligence Network, Mobile Forensic Lab, outsourcing recruitment to end political appointments, and directorate for internal accountability of police.
In order to curb terrorism, KP government has introduced three ordinances on the request of police, though a major political test of getting them passed into law is ahead.
Recently promulgated ‘The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Restriction of Rented Buildings Ordinance 2014’ has made it mandatory for every landlord and hostel owner to verify the credentials of his/her tenant, execute a rent agreement, provide complete details of their tenants to police as per the prescribed forms and seek guarantee of tenants from two notables/respectable. Non-compliance will be a cognisable offence with one-year imprisonment and fine. Police will maintain a central database of all this information for which software is being developed.
Another ordinance ‘The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Hotel Restriction (Security) Ordinance 2014’ requires all hotel owners to register themselves with police, verify the CNICs of the guests through Nadra’s Verisys system, maintain their record/ credentials and update the police on daily basis. The law also makes it mandatory for hotel managements to check the luggage of their guests for arms, ammunition and hate/seditious material. Non-compliance will be a cognisable offence resulting into one-year imprisonment and fine. Police will maintain a central database of all this information.
‘The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Sensitive and Vulnerable Establishment and Places (Security) Ordinance 2014,’ has been promulgated to ensure safety/ security of sensitive and vulnerable places. This law requires all profit-making and government institutions to ensure, on their own expense, proper security arrangements for their premises. The practice is also in line with the global best practices and it is believed that this initiative, besides strengthening the existing security measures, will immensely help the department in improving its resource deployment.
The KP government, on the request of police chief, has approved the establishment of CTD of 2,200 staff that would deal with intelligence, investigation and operations. Initially, it will be established in Peshawar that follows its gradual roll out in divisional headquarters of the police. Deadline of September 2014 has been set for the purpose. The CTD will have its own police stations at division level with powers to register and investigate terrorism-related incidents.
Bomb Disposal units, which were in Peshawar only, have now been established at district level. Each unit comprises 13 personnel and is resourced with basic explosive detection equipment. A CKC has been establishment to arrest the rising crime of kidnapping for ransom and extortion. Besides building public confidence in registration of kidnapping cases, KP police are also using technology to monitor/trace such incidents. Resultantly, a number of abductees have been recovered without paying any ransom and the kidnappers were arrested.
Vehicle Verification System (VVS) has been introduced to maintain vehicle record by linking the cell phone SIMs of duty officers with the Excise Department. At the first step, 400 such vehicle verification SIMs have been distributed amongst the police officers of all districts.
Digitisation of Criminal Record (DCR) of last five years has also been started that will be used by patrolling officers and other police checking staff to identify criminal record of the person being checked. Deadline of May 2014 has been set for completing this digitilisation.
Public Intelligence Network (PIN) is being established for intelligence-led policing. It will be a multi-channel system where a citizen (while remaining anonymous) can anonymously contact police authorities and report suspicious activity in and around his vicinity and neighborhood. The program is intended to collect information to curtail crime and acts of terrorism. A key feature of the system would be an award mechanism where a useful piece of information will lead to a reward.
In order to check corruption in procurement process that tarnished the image of KP police in past as NAB filed a reference against former IG Malik Naveed. Procurement committees have been reconstituted in order to increase number of police officers to decrease discretionary powers besides including non-department members in the committees, in addition to incorporating SOPs from PEPRA rules. Likewise, In order to end political interference in recruitment, it has been decided to outsource the recruitment through ETA and NTS.
As the corruption is rampant in police department, committees of RPOs and DPOs have been constituted to identify and take departmental action against such officers. So far 120 personnel have been removed from the service while around 100 are facing enquiries.
Moreover, to redress the public grievances against police officials, ‘Directorate of Police Complaints and Internal Accountability’ has been established that will hold enquiries and to recommend necessary legal actions against the accused officers.
Good step by the KP government to let the police operate independently. I hope the government will allocate more funds to the police to enhance its capacity and efficiency.
