The Legislative and Parliament Affairs Division under the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs have published a gazette notification by introducing the new Police Commission Ordinance, 2025 (the “Ordinance”) that will likely to establish a separate and independent Commission for the Bangladesh Police which aims to reform the police force and maintain transparency, accountability between the citizens and enhance overall standard of the force.
As per the ordinance, the primary purpose of the Commission is to ensure that the police force is operating skillfully and without any external influence. The Commission intends to take a modernized approach in order to deal with complains and investigation against the police force while remaining independent.
Section 6 of the Ordinance sets out the description of member required to establish the commission and as per the said section, the Chairperson of the Commission would be a retired justice of Bangladesh Supreme Court Appellate Division or High Court Division (S 6 (1) (a)).
The Commission will further include a retired government officer (who has the experience of a district magistrate) (not below Grade-1) (S 6 (1) (b)). A professor either retired or in service (S 6 (1) (c)), a human rights worker with a minimum experience of 15 years in development of human rights or good governance (S 6 (1) (d)) and finally the member-secretary of this Commission must be an additional inspector general of police (Grade-1).
It is very crucial to note that as per S 7 (2) the members of the Commission will be appointed for 4 years and after their term is over, the said members will not be eligible to be rejoin in the Commission.
Relevant provisions regarding the selection committee who will be in charge of the formation of the Commission can be found in section 9. The committee will include a justice from the Appellate Division who is appointed by the Chief Justice of Bangladesh (s 9 (1) (a)). It will further include the chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission (s 9 (1) (b)), cabinet secretary (s 9 (1) (c)), home secretary (s 9 (1) (e)), chairman of Bangladesh Public Service Commission (s 9 (1) (f)) and two representatives from parliament (s 9 (1) (d)).
This committee will recommend the names of potential members for appointment in the Commission and the President of Bangladesh, under section 7, will appoint the members among the recommended names.
In the Ordinance it can be seen that the Commission will operate in two (2) functions, firstly, it deals with how the Commission will deal with complains received from the public in general and secondly, it deals with the procedure of how it will deal with the internal complains and disagreements of the police force itself.
Although the concept of police Commission is appealing on paper, there are several high officials and scholars are against the aforesaid Ordinance. For instance, according to a senior police official, the formation of this new Commission is very disappointing because, the commission is not being granted any real powers which would mean that it would not be able to be free from political influence.1
Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB), an independent, non-government NGO strongly disagreed with the efficiency of the said Commission and they even added by calling it self-defeating and symbolic and that these measures are capable of seriously undermine the prospects of genuine police reforms.
Another point of criticism raised regarding the establishment of the Commission is that it would still be under the control of bureaucracies especially, as per them, the control and influence of the Ministry of Home Affairs on the Commission creates the risk of severe human rights violations and legitimize police misconduct.2
Dr Iftekharuzzaman, director of TIB, called this Commission fundamentally flawed. He included financial and administrative dependency and vague definitions of several prominent provisions as the flaws of the Ordinance.3
There are two (2) main issues which can be noted from the Ordinance. Firstly, the selection committee for the Commission includes two representatives from parliament, one from the ruling party and other from the opposition party. This raises a huge question as to whether it would be possible to keep the commission away from political influence where active political members are on the selecting committee. If the entire procedure of the appointment of the members are influenced by political agenda, it would defeat the sole cause of the said Commission.
Furthermore, the Commission will include a retired additional inspector general of police. Being a former member of the force, there is a risk of him being favorable towards police officers, in other words, when an individual submits complains regarding the department or any specific officer, he might behave in a way which can be considered discriminatory in nature.
However, as one the two functions of the Commission is to resolve any internal dispute or disagreement in police department, it can be considered very significant to ensure the involvement of someone who has been a part of the police force, which could significantly help to resolve any internal issues efficiently.
Secondly, the police Commission is not financially independent. As the commission has to depend on the bureaucracy itself fiscally, it can be a great hindrance towards the independence and the transparency of the said Commission.
Therefore, it can be said that, although the idea of having a police commission to modernize the police department and reform the force itself looks attractive on paper, as long as transparency and independence cannot be ensured, it would defeat the sole purpose of the formation of the said Commission.
Written by Managing Partner Junayed Ahmed Chowdhury and Pupil Barrister Mostofa Galib Khan
1 Mahmudul Hasan, “Bureaucracy interferes in Police Commission” (Prothom Alo English, November 30, 2025) < https://en.prothomalo.com/bangladesh/26obsjjiqa > accessed 18/12/2025, 3:36 PM.
2 Press Release, “TIB slams Police Commission Ordinance 2025, calls for independent, accountable reform” (Dhaka Tribune, December 15, 2025) < https://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/bangladesh-others/398796/tib-criticizes-police-commission-ordinance-2025 > accessed 18/12/2025, 4:32 PM.
3 Dr Iftekharuzzaman, “The Police Commission Ordinance is an eyewash at best” (The Daily Star, December 14, 2025) < https://www.thedailystar.net/opinion/views/news/the-police-commission-ordinance-eyewash-best-4057631 > accessed 18/12/2025, 4:29 PM..
AstuteHorse