Pakistan Police Reforms: Ground Reality

Be ever you so high the law is above you. That was the spirit of the 2002 Police Order in Pakistan introduced by General Pervez Musharraf in continuation of its slogan “Moderate Enlightenment”. After more than six years, including almost 100 amendments to date, this Order has not been passed by any Parliament as an Act.

Following the promulgation of the Police Order it was hoped that citizens would get some relief, police would be held accountable for their misdeeds and there would be an effective check on political influence in the functioning of the police. However, the 2002 Police Order failed to address these basic issues and not surprisingly therefore there has been very little improvement at the ground level.

Despite repeated statements by senior leadership, the thana culture has not changed. Under this Order every police officer is bound to protect the life, property and liberty of citizens, preserve and promote public peace, and protect the rights of a person taken into custody. However, these duties are not practically followed or respected. Allegations of false police encounters, custodial deaths, gang rape and serious injuries to people in police custody are numerous. While non-governmental organisations have held seminars and workshops on these issues and politicians have purported to show an interest on the issue, the aggrieved person has continually been denied justice.

There is a general perception out there that the police are mainly meant for the rich and powerful and they are not accountable to any body except to those who arrange their postings and transfers. This perception of the people at large is accurate because registering a First Information Report (FIR), which the police are obligated to register, is still quite problematic. Many criminal matters focus on the issue of FIR registration and on habeas corpus petitions. Courts have been equally derelict as they are reluctant to pass any strict order against police highhandedness.

The police exhibit a great deal of arrogance when dealing with the ordinary citizen. For instance, senior officers are inaccessible. They sit under fortified walls, with guards standing all around, or they are constantly busy with meetings or conferences. The recruitment of police officers through the Federal Public Service Commission may be a good idea. In this way you might be able to get well educated, well trained, well spoken, and perhaps even kind hearted, officers.

Recent police reform initiatives have obviously been drafted with the officer cadre in mind. Their seats have been enhanced with handsome pay, including all emoluments, and not enough attention has been paid to the 85 per cent of the police force who are non-officers (the Deputy Superintendent of Police and below). These are the policemen who are semi-educated but who also have the knowledge and information of how and where the criminals operate from. In order to ensure the continued commitment and efficiency of the non-officers, better pay packages and more respect from the leadership are required.

Another practical reality is that whenever there is pressure placed on the SP (Superintendent of Police) due to increasing crime in his area, or mishandling of an important case, the most popular response is to either suspend or transfer the SHO (Station House Officer). In fact, the response at the higher levels is no different. The general tendency of the senior police officers has been to transfer or suspend the subordinate officer to shift blame somewhere else and to portray to the common man that action has been taken. This mentality permeates the police culture and creates a dysfunctional environment. Crimes like theft, robbery, rape, murder, kidnapping, fraud and street crimes are quite common. But at the same time, arbitrary detention perpetrated by the police occurs quite frequently. As a result, people generally feel unsafe at the hands of criminals and the police. For instance, people will abandon an injured (or even a dying) person at the scene of an accident because they do not want to get involved with the police at all, for fear that they might be capriciously placed behind bars.

In this, context it may be noted that without adequate political will, and ownership by police leadership, effective police reforms will not occur and the average Pakistani citizen will continue to suffer at the hands of the police and their political masters.