ABSTRACT
Eight years after the end of District Magistracy, Pakistan’s leading newspaper, Dawn, reported:
After six years of eradication of the DC & DM (district commissioner & district magistrate), Pak Tribune reported:
President Pervez Musharraf ’s government became the victim of its crown achievement of eradication of the DC & DM. After five years of termination of the office of DC & DM (May 12, 2007), riots in Karachi, uncontrollable by the police, heralded the removal of Musharraf ’s rule. CNN reported:
By May 2007, it was firmly established that the DC & DM no longer controlled law and order. Previously, under Police Act 1861, the DC & DM was authorized to allow or disallow a political rally. Police Order 2002 replaced Police Act 1861, and, under the new plan, this quasi-judicial function was assigned to the city police officer (CPO). CPO Karachi, who, relying on his armed police force alone without the intervention of a responsible civilian DC & DM, was powerless to prevent detrimental public rallies and to control the law and order situation once such public assemblies were already in full swing. Regarding one such tense situation, BBC wrote that city police authorities had claimed to have taken all possible measures in their security plan to prevent untoward incidents including possible suicide attacks and political clashes:
It was unheard of that police would be instructed to not carry any kind of weapon during law and order duty.
