ISLAMABAD, March 31: The National Reconstruction Bureau has included police in the category of armed forces in its comments sent to the cabinet in response to objections raised by Sindh and Balochistan.

The comments by the NRB have generated a constitutional controversy in the official circles about the role of the police force as envisioned by the bureau and whether it is a part of the civil service.

“Police is an armed force. It should not be governed by the laws applicable to ‘benign services’. More strict rules are required which will in any case be approved by the government,” the NRB said in response to objections raised by the governments of Sindh and Balochistan on the draft police ordinance, 2002.

Sources said the Constitution defines only Army, Navy and Air Force as part of the armed forces and using the same terminology gives a wrong connotation which could later lead to constitutional problems.

Sources in the Law Ministry and the Establishment Division said police was a uniformed force and not an armed force as “envisioned” by the NRB.

However, when NRB consultant Z.U. Khan was contacted, he accepted the fact that the bureau has termed police an armed force.

To a question about the objections of the provinces and the ministries on the issue, he said: “I don’t think there would be any legal complications for using the word armed forces for the police. Since they carry the arms we have called them an armed force.”

Under the proposed police ordinance, 2002, the approval of which has been deferred by the cabinet for a month, the NRB has also made the police officers immune from the application of civil servant rules.

According to NRB’s comments sent to the cabinet, “Police cannot be equated with other civil servants. They belong to a disciplined and regimental organisation, fundamentally different from that of other civil servants. Police officers may be prosecuted for dereliction of duty whereas no such provision exists for other civil servants. These peculiarities take them out of the orbit of laws and procedures applicable to other civil servants and are required to be more stringent.”

Sources in the Establishment Division said the police ordinance stipulates separate police tribunals like that of the armed forces, removing the police from the jurisdiction of services tribunals.

The Sindh government in its objections has said certain chapters of the proposed police ordinance put the police force out of the jurisdiction and operation of E&D Rules, Removal from Service Ordinance, 2000, and the services tribunal.

The Punjab government also raised objections to the NRB proposal, and said in its objections that inclusion of senior police ranks for regulation of punishment under the ordinance may have constitutional implications, as such officers are federal government employees and their conduct is regulated through the Civil Servant Act, 1974. Overruling the objections of the Punjab government, the NRB said the ordinance would be applicable to all ranks of the police.