Whither Draft Police Ordinance, 2007?

It seems that the Draft Police Ordinance, 2007 has been sent to the backburner. We note with considerable dismay the fact that even after three years of its submission to the government and a very extensive public discourse on the matter the proposals have not found a concrete shape. We wonder why?
It is worth repeating that the need to change the archaic police ordinance of 1861 has been long felt and therefore overdue. Given the state of law and order in the country, and the blatant politicisation of the police during every regime, with appointments to responsible positions made on political consideration rather than on merit, the matter of police reform assumes pressing urgency.
The Draft Ordinance, 2007 had come out with very appropriate and significant changes which, hopefully, once implemented would make the police force free of political interference, accountable to the people, and certainly, with a changed mind-frame of the force, more efficient.
However, given the current status of the Ordinance, which has been lying with the ministry since June, 2007, and the attitude of the bureaucracy towards police reform, one cannot but draw the disconcerting conclusion that the reform proposals may not see the light of day in the near future. Our apprehensions stem from the recent reported remarks of the Additional Secretary, Ministry of Home, made to a Bangla daily, that the proposed ordinance is unrealistic and impracticable. It would not be remiss to suggest that there is a bureaucratic resistance to giving a final shape to the Draft Ordinance, perhaps because there is a fear that the force may no longer remain under their control once the ordinance becomes an act. It does require a strong farsighted political will at the top to push things ahead.
One must recognize the fact that there is difference between government control and undue political interference. And it is the latter that the proposed reform would help do away with by making such undue influence a punishable offence. Any statutory body must be answerable to the lawful authority and obey lawful commands and that is what the preamble of the new ordinance also enshrines.
We need a police force that will be responsive to the need of the people and not an instrument of coercion of the government. As we have said before, no new proposal, particularly one that seeks to replace old regulations, can be entirely without flaw. But whatever shortcomings that might be present will become clear only after it has been put into effect. The issue is too important to brook further delay.