INTRODUCTION
Pakistan
is currently in the worst possible era since its creation in 1947. In addition
to rising tolls on poverty, illiteracy, inflation etc; Pakistan faces its worst
threats internally and externally in the form of terrorism, religious
extremism, corruption and political instability. It is in these turbulent times
that the major institutions of the country should provide the stability and
security in the country. It is a known fact that the police in any society play
a major role in devising and implementing a proper law enforcement policy. It
is the job of the police to stand against any internal act of terrorism or
insurgency in the country. Pakistan police, however, has been an exception. The
police of our country are more of a liability for this country instead of
providing safety and security, maintaining law and order and preventing acts of
crime. Since 2002, transparency international has ranked Pakistan police as the
most corrupt organization in the country.
The table below shows transparency international’s ranking since 2002 till
2009:
The
research study “How Terrorist Groups End: Implications for Countering al
Qa’ida” conducted by RAND provides evidence that effective police and
intelligence, rather than the use of military force, deliver better
counterterrorism results.
The case for Pakistan, however, has been completely opposite. The
ineffectiveness of the police force has to be compensated by the army. It is
not the army’s job to defend the borders as well as deal with internal
situations. Their ineffectiveness can also be judged by the low conviction rate,
poor quality of criminal investigations, brutal tortures, extralegal killings
etc., in the society, However, in analyzing a problem it is essential to trace the
problem back to its root cause. Hence, when analyzing the problems or
institutional failure of Pakistan police, it is important to trace back to its’
history to look into where the problem actually started.
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
It
was nearly an 87 year old British system of policing that Pakistan received in
1947. The basic aim of the colonial system of policing was keeping “the
natives on a tight leash, not a politically neutral outfit for fair and
just enforcement of law. Police was designed to be a public-frightening
organization, not a public-friendly agency”.
It was noted that the colonial police was kept ‘semi-militarized, semi-literate, underpaid, bodies of men for
maintaining order by overawing an often turbulent and hostile – native –
population’.
The basic premise behind this type of police was to rule the masses and not
serve the masses. It was basically the police Act of 1861 that established the
above mentioned style of policing in pre-partitioned India. However, even after
partition the basic organization of police remained almost the same.
The
first attempt at improving the policing style, post partition, came in the
February 1948 in the form of XXV Bill of 1948
passed by the Sindh Assembly in order to
establish a modern police in Karachi where a commissioner of police was
appointed to cope with the law and order situations of a growing population in
Karachi. After this, numerous attempts were made in order to reform the
Pakistan police. Below, describes the list of attempts made by governments over
the years to improve the colonial style of policing still continued in Pakistan.
|
Passage of Bill to introduce a Metropolitan
System of Policing in Karachi
|
1948
|
|
Recommendations of Sir Oliver Gilbert Grace,
IG Police, NWFP
|
1951
|
|
Police Commission headed by Mr Justice J.B.
Constantine
|
1961
|
|
Pay & Services Reorganisation Committee
(Justice Cornelius)
|
1962
|
|
Police Commission headed by Major General A.O.
Mitha
|
1970
|
|
Police Station Enquiry Committee headed by
M.A.K. Chaudhry, IG Police
|
1976
|
|
Law and Order Sub-Committee headed by Ch.
Fazal Haque
|
1976
|
|
Police Reforms
Committee headed by Rafi Raza
|
1976
|
|
Orakzai Committee on Police Welfare, Promotion
and Seniority Rules
|
1981
|
|
Cabinet Committee on the Emoluments of SHOs
|
1982
|
|
Cabinet Committee on Determining the Status of
SHOs
|
1983
|
|
Sahibzada Rauf Ali Committee
|
1983
|
|
The Police Committee headed by Mr Aslam Hayat
|
1985
|
|
Report of the two-member delegation’s visit to
Bangladesh and India
|
1987
|
|
Report of the seven-member delegation’s visit
to Bangladesh and India
|
1989
|
|
Police Reforms Implementation Committee –
M.A.K. Chaudhary
|
1990
|
|
Report of the UN Mission on Organised Crime in
Pakistan
|
1995
|
|
Report of the Japanese Police Delegation on
the Police System in Pakistan
|
1996
|
|
Committee on Police Reforms under the
Chairmanship of Interior Minister
|
1997
|
|
Report of the Good Governance Group on Police
Reforms: Committee Vision
|
1998
|
|
|
|
Despite
all these reports being presented, none of the recommendations were implemented
upon and the system of Police created by the British is fundamentally the same.
To this date, Pakistan is struggling with the colonial style of coercive
policing.
POLICE & MILITARY COUPS
Pakistan
and military coups have been almost synonymous with each other. The history of
Pakistan and its’ institutions cannot be discussed without mentioning the
impact of the military coups on these institutions. Since its inception in
1947, Pakistan has been under the military dictatorship 53% of the time in its
65 year history. As
mentioned before, Pakistan police had been struggling with its role in the
country since the creation of Pakistan and with the imposition of first martial
law in 1958, Ayub Khan used the police to “suppress
political dissent and to marginalize
opposition politicians”.
The oppressive role that the police had been playing in the society and had
been trying to get rid off was revived again under Ayub khan.
The
second military coup under Army chief Zia-Ul-Haq proved even more disastrous
for this institution. Again, Zia-Ul-Haq used the police to suppress politicians
and appointed military officials on high ranks of the police.
With the army taking control of everything in their own hands, Zia-ul-haq even
deprived the Pakistan police of its’ resources.
The
third military coup under Musharraf proved to be rather helpful for the
Pakistan police. It was under the military dictatorship of Musharraf that the
police order of 2002 was introduced. The key features of the police order of
2002 included:
1.
Additional
checks on police through an independent prosecution service.
2.
Citizen
Police Liaison commissions for police accountability in independent citizen
commissions
3.
Establishment
of Criminal Justice Coordination Committees
4.
Separating
operational duties from investigation
5.
Effective
internal accountability by police command
6.
Operational
and administrative autonomy
7.
Organize
police on functional basis
STRUCTURE & EXISTING
FUNCTIONS
The
Pakistan police is divided into 2 major subdivisions, the first being the
Federal police and then the provincial police organizations. Under the
constitution of 1973, criminal law and procedure are jointly the centre and
provinces’ responsibility.
The following describes the two major subdivisions of the police, the
regulatory organizations under these subdivisions along with their existing
functions:
FEDERAL
POLICE
The
list below describes the organizations under the federal police:
- Federal
Investigation Agency (FIA)
- Anti-Narcotics
Force (ANF)
- Frontier
Constabulary
- Frontier
Corps
- Pakistan
Coast Guards
- Pakistan
Rangers
- National
Highways and Motorways Police (NHMP)
- Pakistan
Railways Police
- Islamabad
Police, Islamabad Capital Territory
Broadly
describing it, the federal police is entitled to cross-provincial control of
any offences against the federal government. Organizations such as ANF, as the
name suggests, controls narcotics trafficking and NHMP controls the traffic
systems on highway and motorway. The general responsibilities under
organizations like Frontier constabulary, frontier corps, Pakistan coast guards
and Pakistan rangers are: “a) securing
and checking illegal border crossings; b) preventing smuggling; c) enforcing
drug control; and d) assisting provincial governments in maintaining law and
order when requested.” While the above mentioned organizations
deal with specialized issues, the FIA deals with serious offences against the
federation like high treason.
PROVINCIAL
POLICE
Maintaining
law and order in the provinces is the main responsibility of the provincial police
(i.e. Punjab police, Sindh police, Khyberpakhtunkhwa police and Baluchistan
police). The provincial police organizations are completely decentralized and
are not integrated on a national level.
PROBLEMS
As of
today, Pakistan is in its’ most troubled times since its inception. Faced with
an internal and external crisis, Pakistan seems to be stuck in the middle. With
a multitude of external and internal problems that it faces today, the country
has to also deal with an ineffective criminal justice institution like the
police. Below, describes the list of problems that hinders this institution
from functioning properly:
- Lack
of coordination between different criminal justice institutions and
intelligence agencies: Pakistan’s biggest threat comes
from its own produce of extremist groups. Since 2000, there have been 353
suicide attacks which have taken approximately 5000 precious lives.
A severe lack of coordination amongst police and institutions like FIA and
ISI weakens the police’s strength to combat and strategize for
counterterrorism. The prime example of lack of coordination is the Benazir
Bhutto assassination where the ISI “was
conducting its own investigation but only selectively shared the evidence
it collected with the police”.
Moreover,
there is no coordination in the institution itself. Since, constitutionally
policing is a provincial matter, the police of different provinces is not
coordinated as well.
- The
Police Act of 1861 and the Police Order of 2002:
The criminal justice institution of a democratic country should be ideally
serving the masses in providing safety, security and justice to the
citizens. However, our police operate on a system that was designed to
rule the masses rather than serve them. This, in turn, creates confusion
for the police on which role they should play.
The
Police Order of 2002 was a valid attempt at revolutionizing the policing system
in this country; however the halfhearted implementation of the Police Order has
left the police standing to where it was before.
- Political
interference: As mentioned earlier as well, Pakistan police
has always been the puppet of the political parties. The police have been
fighting the masses for the governments. All military leaders that have ruled
the country have used the police to suppress political parties from
protesting. The police should be for protecting the interests of the
people is used to sustain powers by different political parties.
- Thana
culture: The Thana culture represents the status
of the Police in the society where they are unaccountable for any
wrongdoing or disregard of human rights. The table below shows the
complaints against the police in session courts:
- Corruption:
Over the years, Pakistan has seen a sharp increase in crime rates in
addition to terrorism activities. Subsequently, there has also been a
rising trend in the budget allocations as well. While budgets are
allocated for the functioning of the organization, the budgets of the
police seem to be used only for filling pockets. With over a population of
170 million, the Pakistan Police is highly understaffed with only 350,000
men who make a ratio of 485 civilians to 1 policeman.
Even with such low numbers of policemen, most of the time the policemen
are being used for providing protocol to politicians, foreign dignitaries
etc.
IMPACT
ANALYSIS
Pakistan
police is an institution that is surrounded by trouble both internally and
externally. The main problems, outlined above, in the institution create an
impact on the whole society. Since Police is considered as the prime law
enforcement institution in the country, a failure on the Police’s part
increases the crime and uncertainty in the country. As seen in Pakistan’s case,
the increase in terrorism activities impacted Pakistan both financially and
socially.
The
inefficiency and ineffectiveness of this institution also gives a chance for
the army to indulge in every internal affair in the country. With the police
failing to perform their duties efficiently, the army has to be called to take
control of situations. The most recent case of police’s inefficiency can be
seen in the lyari incident where the situation was getting out of the hands of
the police and hence the army was called to take control of the situation.
REFORMS & IMPLEMENTATION
PLANS
The
above mentioned problems create the need for the government to reform the
organization. In the past few years, we have seen the complete breakdown of our
criminal justice system. From the police abusing their rights and disregarding
human rights to merely being the puppets of the politicians, the Pakistan
police needs to be reformed so that our justice system can move in a positive
direction.
1. From
a constitutional standpoint, the Pakistan police have a different role as compared
to what it should be playing in a democratic society. This case is especially
valid in Pakistan where extremist groups and terrorism is so entrenched in the
society that an effective police system is mandatory. Thus, the Police Act of
1861 should be replaced with the Police Order of 2002 with its additional
amendments so that a new policing system could be implemented. As for the
implementation, the Police Order of 2002 should be implemented gradually in
provinces so that there is no resistance towards the new system. Also, the
system should be implemented in police training academies so that officers can
be trained in the same manner.
In order to practically implement the Police
order nationwide, the Police Order needs to be presented in the parliament and
if the police order attains 2/3rd majority, it can be easily
implemented throughout the country.
2. In
order to cope with insurgency situations and extremist activities in the
country, Pakistan Police is extremely understaffed as well as untrained to combat
such situations. Hence, the strength of the police should be increased as well
as specializations like terrorist activities and forensics should be promoted.
In order to employ more people in the police, we will require more financial
resources. However, the budgets for the police are good enough if corruption is
eradicated from the country. The table below shows the Punjab police Budgets
from 2000-2008:
This table gives a rough estimate as to the
amount of financial resources allocated to the Police with a 248% increase in
budgets in 8 years. Hence, there is no lack of financial resources; if the
corruption is eradicated, the amount of officers can be increased easily.
3. Another
problem that is interlinked to this situation is the problem of police being consigned
to VIP protocols and politicians’ securities. Thus, a special unit should be
designed amongst the police who are only responsible for the security of
officials. Also, the security with retired officers and post holders should be
reduced.
4. In order
to combat corruption within the organization, the salaries and incentives of
the police should be increased. As seen in the case of National Highway &
Motorway Police, incentives can lead to better performance.
5. In
order to increase the accountability of the police, accountability mechanisms
should be devised both internally and externally in the police so that the
police cannot abuse the powers in their hands. In order to do that, firstly,
the anti corruption laws should be strengthened to combat corruption within the
organization and public safety commissions should be setup under the police
order of 2002 where the police can be
held accountable.
6. Leadership
plays an important role in the governance of an organization. Hence, honest and
experienced officers should be assigned on high posts in the police. Also, the
army officers’ 10% quota of police positions should also be abolished so that
army’s involvement in the police affairs can be reduced.
CONCLUSION
It is a known fact that the police is an ineffective
institution and reforming this organization can be a huge task but in order to
make Pakistan a democratic and free society, the law enforcement should be
strict so that the citizens of this country can feel at safe in their own
country.
Dr.
M. Shoaib Suddle, Asad Jahangir Khan,
Dr. Shafqat Ali Shah Jamote, and Mr. Kamran Rasool. "REPORT OF THE
SUB-COMMITTEE ON POLICE REFORM.". Web. 9 June 2012.
<www.ncgr.gov.pk/Forms/16.../police_reform7-9.doc>.
