PAKISTAN NATIONAL HIGHWAY & MOTORWAYS POLICE
Introduction
Pakistan police capacity to deliver service to common people was disturb by political factors, lack of accountability, lack of transparency, lack of adequate training and equipment, lack of disconnect and lack of co-ordination between numerous kinds of policing and intelligence organizations. In this context it was necessary to upgrade the policing department which has the control of motorways, through which almost all area meet to the capital Islamabad. National highway and motorway police has been declared as a role model for the public organization being a corruption free department in Pakistan. It has been included as the 13th corruption free department of the world. Although police is considered to be the most corrupt and non-public friendly institution in Pakistan, but Pakistan national highway and motorway police has been ranked high among all enforcement agencies being corruption free. National highway and motorway police is a federal enforcement agency under the Ministry of communication. It was established in 1997. It has a jurisdictional control over 2700 kilometers on various highways and motorways in Pakistan. It will have jurisdiction over certain other national highways in near future. In this way it is going to be one of the largest law enforcement agencies. National highway and motorways has two types of staff: one administrative which is supporting staff and operational staff which carries out operational duties on highways and motorways. National highway and motorway police has strict merit based recruitment policies and a strong accountability process. Due to such mechanisms, the chance of involvement of any staff members in corruption is very rare.
History of National Highway and Motorway police
National highway and motorway police Pakistan is police force responsible for the enforcement of laws and traffic rules and regulation on highways and newly constructed motorways of Pakistan. The year 1997 was an advent of golden chapter in the history of policing in Pakistan, when it was decided to raise a modern, competent and efficient force for policing of the Motorway (M-2). There were more critics as compare to supporters and it was considered that it was the same effort to reform police as it did before 1997. The credit goes to the dedicated team of new officers who stuck to the job and burnt the midnight oil to produce something unique and unmatchable. The project was conceived originally by Mr. Afzal Shigri three years earlier and a blueprint was prepared by him. He was assisted by Mr. Shamim Ahmed ,an officer of nations transport research cell. The astonishing aspect of the project was that serving policeman taken on deputation from all over Pakistan were weaned from their old habits and molded into an efficient, honest and dedicated team. This reforming of officers was given to the then Inspector general police Mr. Iftikhar Rashid and his team of a few dedicated officers. It was these officers who undertook the impossible task of raising a professional and modern force for the M-2. The challenge was accepted by the leader of this motivated team. His boundless energy, devotion to duty and inspiring leadership were responsible for motivating his team and producing unbelievable results. The British Motorway police trainers, after seeing this force in operations, remarked that the new force was even better than the British Motorway Police. The new force quickly earned the respect and appreciation of millions of road users. Not a single day passes without praise and prayers for this force from the travelers on the Motorways and Highways. It will not be irrelevant to mention here that all these police forces were taken from the existing force and they were given training and motivation and transform into very public friendly police.
Pakistan motorway police was established by the government in 1997. It was initiated by general Musharraf, the then president of Pakistan. The main aim was to police the country’s newly constructed motorway network starting with M2. In 2001 additional responsibility of Patrolling Pakistan national highway starting with Pakistan longest Karachi to Peshawar national highway was given to motorway police and its name is changed to national highway and motorway police. Currently it is responsible (national highway and motorway police) is responsible for the enforcement of traffic and safety laws, security of people and recovery on Pakistan national highways and motorways. It is headed by Inspector general of police (IGP) and he is assist by seven DIGs. It consists of 6000 forces in which 5000 are uniformed forces and 1000 are non-uniform person. The control of traffic violation, to educate the road users, to launch road safety measure to motorists, to provide road assistance to users, to treat road users respectfully and some other functions are the responsibility of national highway and motorway police. The national highway and motorway police are equipped with digital equipment, first aid boxes, communication system, Weber hydraulic cutters as rescue equipment in case of accidents, night vision speed checking device. The homepage of national highway and motorway police has a travel updated section which provide hourly updates on weather and road conditions on various parts of highways and motorway networks.
Most of the funding for national highway and motorway police come from federal. Before to the Operationalization of national highway and motorway in 1997 all the officers were selected from within the existing police set up in the country and an extensive training program was prepared for them to bring them up to international standards of motorway policing. For training program of the candidates or officers local and foreign instructor were invited. A new training college was set up at Sheikhupura in order to train the new selected officers.
Organization structure
The national highway and motorway police is headquartered in Islamabad. The first IGP of national highway and motorway was Afzal Shigri. The rank structure is as follows:
Inspector general of police
Deputy inspector general of police
Assistant inspector general of police
Senior Superintendents of police
Superintendents of police
Assistant Superintendent of police
Deputy Superintendents of police
Comments
Post a Comment