Brigadier General (retd) Dr. M Sakhawat Hussain, the Shipping Adviser, stated today that the establishment of an independent police commission is essential to the development of a humane police force.
“We’ve to form an independent police commission urgently to transform the force into a humane one from monstrous. We held talks with police members at different levels after August 8 (after formation of the interim government) and they demanded forming the police commission at that time,” he said.
He believed that the police commission should have no more than five members and that its head might be a member of the judiciary.
He was the main speaker at a seminar hosted by the South Asian Institute of Policy and Governance (SAIPG) at North South University’s Syndicate Hall with the topic “Police Commission Formation and other reform proposals to ensure public orientated police services.”
According to the advisor, the cops no longer wish to be politicised.
He said, “It is the time to form the police force free from political interference after the bloody July-August revolution. The confidence of the people in police has to be brought back in any means. So, the relationship between the police and the people needs to be reestablished. Our students are helping police to this end.”
Sakhawat, former home adviser, also said that citizen committees with noted personalities can be formed at the police stations to help the force.
He stressed the need for introducing two step processes relinquishing the three steps one in recruitment of members in police to stop corruption and irregularities in the force. “There is no scope of getting promotion at the lower level of police. Constables go to retirement as constable, which are very unfortunate. A university graduate has become frustrated after seeing no hope of getting promotion and get involved in irregularities and corruption,” he said.
He opined that the corruption in police could be reduced manifolds by increasing advantages for the police personnel at the lower level.
The adviser said high police officials should know how their subordinates work, adding, “A BCS police cadre can be posted at the police station for one year after their basic training at Sarda Police Academy.”
He said the recruitment of the police members could be done centrally instead of district wise appointment to ensure transparency and accountability in recruiting police.
“In my opinion, police should be recruited through the police commission,” he added.Former Home Secretary and BNP Chairperson’s Adviser SM Zahirul Islam, Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Police Barrister Mohammad Mosharraf Hossain, and addition DIG Md Mohibul Karim, also spoke on the occasion. North South University Vice-Chancellor Prof Abdul Hannan Chowdhury gave the concluding address.
Sheikh Toufiq M. Haque, SIPG Director of North South University, conducted the seminar, and Dr. Md. Rizwannul Islam, a professor in the law department, and Dr. Ishrat Zakia Sultana, an assistant professor in the political science and sociology departments, gave the outline for a potential police commission.
