Fifth annual conference of Former IGPs held at National Police Academy

ISLAMABAD: (Parliament Times) The fifth annual conference of Former Inspector General of Police was held by AFIGP at National Police Academy on August 3 2019. It was presided over by Mr. Iftikhar Rashid President of the association. More than seventy retired inspectors general of police from all the provinces and many serving senior officers attended this conference. The Chief Guest for this conference was an icon of the police and former Inspector General of Police Mr. Abbas Khan. The theme of the conference was “new trends in the police reforms in Pakistan”. Presentations on various important aspects of new initiatives in reforming police were made by the former and serving police officers

Mr Afzal Ali Shigri made a presentation on the progress on police reforms initiated by the higher judiciary through the Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan. Mr. Tariq Khosa briefed about the issues regarding the restructuring of the civil services and the status of the Police Service of Pakistan in the overall governance arrangement of the country. On behalf of Baluchistan Police former IGP Mr. Saud Gohar made a presentation on the changes and improvements introduced by the provincial police in dealing with the sparsely populated largest province of Pakistan and the successes achieved despite serious resource constraints.  DIG KPK presented details of the extension of civil police in the erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and the challenges faced by this historical transformation..  Mr. Mirza Hassan SSP from GB gave a presentation on the newly created tourist police in GB which is a preferred destination of foreign as well as local tourists. Mr. Saud Mirza former IGP spoke on the life and the achievements of one of the senior most officer of the Police Service of Pakistan namely Khan  Qurban Ali Khan who had unmatched career and had the singular distinction of being governor of two provinces.

These papers were followed by question and answer session and the challenges faced by the police service of Pakistan. The conference adopted a Resolution against the proposal to merge two important institutions of police namely National Police Academy and National Police Bureau into one entity. The conference was of the unanimous view that the merger will negatively impact the working of both the institutions besides creating confusion and therefore held:-

 

“Whereas a Task Force on Austerity and Re-structuring of Government is looking into the reorganization of the Federal Government;

“And whereas the task force in the proposed reorganization of training institutions is considering the merger of the National Police Academy,(NPA) Islamabad and the National Police Bureau (NPB) as National Police Training and Research institute (NPTRI);

“And whereas, the National Police Academy is an autonomous body registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 governed by an independent Board of Governors, and the National Police Bureau is a statutory body established by Article 162 of Police Order 2002;

“And whereas NPA is mandated to undertake and conduct pre-service and in-service training of Assistant Superintendents of Police, Superintendents of Police, and senior law enforcement officials in Pakistan, as applicable; and design standardized syllabi for police rank in Pakistan; and develop National Police Training Policy;

“And whereas, National Police Bureau is mandated to function as permanent secretariats of National Police Safety Commission and National Police Management Board;

“And whereas keeping in line with good administrative principle and practice, Initial/Induction/Pre-Service and In-service Training Institutions are kept separate and distinct from policy implementation organization;

“And whereas, the desired objectives of the merger can be realized by merely strengthening and empowering the existing structures within NPA and NBP at no additional cost or restructuring;

“And whereas, merging the two entities will only create greater irreversible confusion and dysfunction, which will entail compromised working of both the organizations;

“The AFIGP resolves and strongly urges that the National Police Academy  and National Police Bureau should be kept separate and independent, and the NPA Board of Governors should be further strengthened and empowered by enhancing its existing mandate.”