Promulgate police ordn to remove cop-people gap
Inspector General of Police Nur Mohammad yesterday stressed the need for promulgating and implementing the Bangladesh Police Ordinance 2007 to remove the gap between people and police and enable the law enforcers to become friends of people instead of a source of panic.
Speaking as the chief guest at a seminar titled 'Necessity of Reform of the Police Act for National Development', he said police are functioning under an outdated act enacted during the British colonial days and therefore there is no alternative to promulgating the ordinance to make police more transparent, professional and accountable to people.
Organised by Bangladesh Unnayan Parishad (BUP), the seminar was held at the Bangladesh Economic Association (BEA) auditorium in the city. Former adviser to a caretaker government ASM Shahjahan, also a former IGP, was the keynote speaker with BUP Chairman and BEA President Dr Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad in the chair.
Former secretaries Syed Yusuf Hossain, Mostofa Faruq Mohammad and Abdul Karim, professors Ashraf Uddin Chowdhury and Dalem Chandra Burman, Brig (Retd) Shahidul Enam Khan and Syed Habib Ullah also spoke at the seminar.
Nur Mohammad said the police force is functioning under the outdated Police Act 1861 where there is no place for such words as community, democracy, constitution, media and human rights.
Shahjahan said the Police Act 1861 was enacted four years after the Sepoy Revolution to clamp down on any sort of demonstration.
“This Act is very good for exercising control, but not for service and development,” he added.
Criticising the present caretaker government for not implementing the proposed Police Ordinance he said, “We do not know why they do not implement it though they had implemented many other ordinances without consultation.”
Shahjahan urged the government to implement the proposed Police Ordinance before handing over power to an elected government.
Dr Kholiquzzaman said the present government did many things, which they were not supposed to do while they did not do many things which they should have done.
“After the handover of power, the government will have to be accountable for those works which were out of their jurisdiction,” he said, adding, “The government should implement the proposed Police Ordinance before handing over their power.”
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