The killing of two people in police custody – one in Rahim Yar Khan and the other in Lahore – in as many days demands a moment of reflection from the ruling party, which had made police reforms in Punjab a leading point of its manifesto. Had the police officials involved in the killings of citizens in Sahiwal been punished, the recent incidents of the custodial killings would not have happened. In one of the recent incidents, Salahuddin Ayubi, the man caught after famously breaking an ATM machine, died in the custody of the Rahima Yar Khan police. In Lahore, a middle-aged man, Amjad Ali, died in hospital due to alleged torture by the Gujjarpura police in a torture cell unearthed some days back. He was kept at the building of the forest department in a jungle. In the initial 100 days in power, in a zealous fit, the government also made a reform body with Nasir Durrani its head to make a turnaround in Punjab police culture, mainly to replicate the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police model. No doubt Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf did a wonderful job to reform the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police department during its 2013-2018 rule, and riding its success wave, the party swept the Punjab in 2018. Within months, Durrani quit the body because his work was allegedly being hampered by the ruling elite. The government never made a serious effort to bring Mr Durrani back to work, neither made the reform body reactive. The custodial deaths of Ayubi and Amjad have one again brought the issue of police reforms to the fore. Though customary inquiries into the deaths have been initiated, the most important thing is the intervention of Prime Minister Imran Khan into the affairs of the Punjab police. Mr Khan has ordered the police chief to introduce aggressive and progressive reforms to bring about a visible change in police culture. Is the police ready for reforms? The force needs training to police communities along professional lines. It will need the strict enforcement of discipline. The statement of then Islamabad Inspector General Khalid Khattak to a Supreme Court bench back in 2018 should be read again and again, since it is a sort of surrender to the radicalisation of society and the collapse of the police force. During the hearing of the Faizabad dharna, he said the security personnel had a ‘soft corner’ for the protesters because of the religious cause of the protesters. Clearly, then, the police structure needs a complete overhaul so problems like custodial killings are finally rooted out. *