Successive reports of Transparency International validate that the Pakistan Army is the most transparent institute in Pakistan. But for the last couple of years, enemies of Pakistan have been trying their level best to malign the Pakistan Army. A few months ago, the incident of Bhawalnagr triggered outrage all over the country but Pakistan’s Armed Forces took the initiative to get the matter resolved amicably and also issued an official press release to probe the matter to fix the responsibility. Sadly, only recently, another man, a civilian this time and a doctor by profession, became the victim of custodial murder in the southern province of Pakistan, the province of Sindh.
Power or authority must not be misused to invade personal space and to hurt the sanctity of citizens. Raiding without a warrant is a blatant violation of fundamental human rights, and profiling the citizens is also a crime itself. The lives of innocent patriot Pakistanis are being ruined to satisfy the ego of power-monger elements within the department of police while abusing power and position.
The incidents of Bhawalnagr and Dr Shah Nawaz are eye-openers for the nation, judiciary, parliamentarians, and technocrats. There is an urgent need to make legislation to stop such incidents in the future.
Power or authority must not be misused to invade personal space and to hurt the sanctity of citizens.
It is also pertinent to highlight the fact that the police have a very notorious track record for profiling government officials, civil servants, and military officials to create controversies.
The police must maintain law and order situations to provide security and protection to the citizens of Pakistan, but they are found intimidating the citizens most of the time by various means, and ironically, government officials, civil servants, and military officials are also not spared from it. And dacoits, killers, and mass killers roam freely unchecked. In stark contrast, every time, the Pakistan Army has rescued the people of Pakistan and has maintained the law and order situation in Pakistan. Speaking of the notoriety of police, hardly any citizen of Pakistan is spared: most popular leaders and most democratic leaders also have remained victims. The world and the people of Pakistan know very well how the incumbent president of Pakistan faced brutal third-degree torture in jail by police. His tongue was cut, and a botched attempt was made to cut his neck and throat to kill him.
When citizens approach the nearest police station to lodge an FIR, they find it very difficult to get it registered, and if an FIR is registered, then the arrest of culprits won’t happen in most of cases. Despite summons from various levels of the judiciary, it is hard to arrest the culprits by the police. On the other hand, when police themselves want to carry out any adventure, they do things without any warrant.
At present, police are struggling to keep good relationships with the public with a high magnitude of mistrust and mistreatment, which is not only hindering effective policing but sometimes innocents become the victims of police.
We need to introduce independent police reforms to upgrade the system of policing and crime control and ensure that public officials undergo rigorous training, awareness, and sensitization to issues related to custodial torture. Efforts should be made to change political practices and social behaviours that covertly sustain or encourage custodial torture.
Sadly, police are habitual in carrying out unlawful acts like that of the custodial murder of Dr Shah Nawaz, but we can hope that they will learn a lesson. While keeping in view the track record as per international transparency watchdogs and other credible sources, one can easily figure out where the fault line exists!
The writer is a senior journalist and TV analyst.