Reforming Pak Police

The need for police reforms have been well acknowledged since independence. Police are the gatekeepers of the criminal justice system. Every action of an individual police officer whether s/he is a street-level patrol officer or an officer-in-charge of a police station affects not only the police system but it also touches the very sensitive nervous system of the whole criminal justice system. 
The current Police Force is incapable of combating crime, upholding the law, or protecting citizens and the state against militant violence.

 

To the ordinary person in Pakistan, what matters most is that should he require a response from the police he can get it without having to ask his local Member of Parliament or feudal lord. He also wants that should police officers commit a crime or abuse against him, he or his relatives can seek redress without fear that political heavyweights will get involved. And he requires that if he ends up in police custody, he will be treated as innocent until proven guilty and not summarily killed because a local feudal lord wants it to be so. The ordinary citizen wants that should she enter a police station, she will not be intimidated, tortured, and kept in arbitrary custody. As a woman, she wants special provisions to protect her from harassment. People are also particularly concerned that they will not become the easy targets of fabricated and falsified cases to boost records of police efficiency. These are the concerns of most people in Pakistan, which persist despite the implementation of new legal framework Police Order 2002. 

 

The shame of the recent Police reforms is that rather than sending the right message to the people of Pakistan, they have sent altogether the wrong one. The changes are incomplete and inadequate, and reinforce popular perceptions that politicisation, corruption, mismanagement and impunity are here to stay. People understand only that their lives are subject to the whims of elite groups, power mafia, money making mafia, technocrat mafia, weak institutions and powerful Bureaucracy. Under these circumstances, it can be said that the Pakistani criminal justice system is no longer serving any purpose. Whereas the aim of punishment under the rule of law is to reform criminals and deter them from further acts, the same cannot be said of the 'punishments' awarded by the courts in Pakistan today, which are intended only to protect criminals and permit more abuse. 

 

As policing in Pakistan is broken and the public is dissatisfied. Since policing affects the safety and security of all those living in Pakistan each and every day, we ask that all political parties agree to include the issue of police reforms in their manifestos for the next Assembly elections.

 

Sign Online Petition

I have uploaded "Online Petition" addressed to Pakistanipolitical leaders for implementation of public friendly police reforms. Please read the petition and come to know the voice of common Pakistani people.
http://www.petitiononline.com/shafqat/petition.html

 Please sign the Petition and forward it to your close friends for similar role.

Best Regards

Dr Shafqat Qamar

[email protected]