Daily Times

As a colonial legacy, Pakistan inherited the Police Organization from British India, still displaying much of its colonial characteristics. The colonial police force considered itself responsible for the needs of the colonisers and their bureaucracy, not those of the people, and tried to protect them. Instead of defending the society, they were supposed to monitor the population, and were taught to stay outside and divide from the society itself. The police were built a tremendously hierarchical system that promised obedience rather than the rule of law to the political leadership and the regime. The transition that should have occurred after independence is not reflected in the police in Pakistan. In Pakistan, the police service has continued to represent a colonial model that has a number of problems. The recent examples of police role in curbing crime justify it.

Policing in Pakistan has five types of problems: 1) misuse of authority and unlawful actions committed by the department of police, including disinclination and malfunction to register FIR (First Information Report); use of investigative torture, extrajudicial assassinations, unjustified and unwarranted arrests, and counterfeitevidences (2) lack of passable police regulation, i.e., internal or external processes of accountability. (3) Widespread political involvement in the selection and recruitment, transfer and promotion of police officers, as well as in the day-to-day activities of police officers. (4) Lack of infrastructure, including financial rewards and logistics. (e) Poor working conditions in the lower police ranks.

The study of the International Crisis Group identified the problems with the police in Pakistan: failure to uphold the law, failure to fight crime, inability to protect civilians, brutality and corruption, high-handedness, extra-judicial killings, torture, assistance in rigging elections, repression of dissent, abuse related to gender, unlawful detention and insufficient wages. The following problems have been described by Dr. ShoaibSuddle, former IG of Police and DG of the IB: incompetence, ineptitude, inefficiency, lack of reaction to people, extremelypoliticised force, slanted public image, and institutionalisedexploitation of power.

Unfortunately, depoliticisation and police autonomy were not the priority of the political parties and the government. For their inefficiency, incompetence, and politicisation, the police force in Pakistan is criticised. There is a significant disconnection between the police and the country’s people. As a consequence, the police forces’ service delivery, administration and efficiency have been dissatisfactory.

The aim of the Police Order 2002 was to resolve the excessive use of force, abuse of authority, political involvement with police operations and administration, corruption, lack of specialisation, and inadequate police command and control. In addition, it was meant to regulate the police through the Public Safety Commissions and reduce the ties between the police and politics.

Patronage and loyalty, unprofessionalism and lack of objective, bribery, corruption and extortion, violence and security rackets, direct participation and defence of drug-related activities and payments for posting and transfer are key aspects through which corruption attain the highest position.

It has been observed globally that terrorism, population movements, urbanization, globalization, and ingrained sociological problems pretense more crime control threats which are beyond the abilities and capabilities of traditional police

There is a relationship between the role of police and economy. In Pakistan’s context, the tax system is regressive, because poor paying extra taxes, thus further growing poverty. Resource allocation is lacking transparency, and political elite tend to pay out more on events and programs with more exposure and better voting opportunities, compared to spending more on security and growth for people. As a result, low salaries are paid to police officers with fewer privileges and police operations are not properly resourced. The mixture of both leads to corruption in the police.

In Pakistan, political control over the police is widespread. The police stations in Pakistan are the axis institution around which the country’s politics revolve, and ‘a politician’s value in his/her constituency is measured in terms of his/her ability to influence the police.Therefore, the transition and posting of police officers is a politicised practice. The transfers of District Police Officers (DPOs) are completely at the discretion of Chief Ministers (CM) of the provinces at the provincial level.An important tool for managing the police force is political influence on the transfer and posting of police officers.

If a police officer asks a leader to get him a post of his choice, it is not considered corruption. But then such favours come at a cost, such as favouring the politician in police inquiries, posting SHOs of their choice to build a politician’s authority in his district, regardless of any considerations of effectiveness and honesty. In very few instances, without political patronage, an officer gets a good posting.

For the most part, police officers without access to political favour end up as Special Duty Officers (OSD). The position of OSD is considered no less than retribution for officers who do not represent the interests of politicians because no jobs or offices are allocated and field posts are never provided.

Police force control is every Pakistani politician’s dream, since it means the power to threaten, hound, and make the lives of their opponents miserable. They were particularly fretful about the police’s harassment and politicisation by politicians. They kept lawmakers accountable for corruption and abuse by the police.

Police has a significant role in the growth of socio-economic and political development in society because police has a key function and authority to keep peace, public safety and security. These are the basic needs for the survival of a society. The role of police is highly influential in the improvement and development of state infrastructure but in Pakistan this is not the concentrated area. If Pakistan’s police will have high effectiveness, efficiency, awareness, responsiveness, and vigilance, it would positively impact on the socio-economic development. On the contrary, the futile and ineffective performance of police would have negative effects on development and society. Inevitably, such bad and poor situation would result in national turn down. It also negatively influences public confidence to be safe and secure; another negative effect would be on the foreign business investors.

It has been observed globally that terrorism, population movements, urbanization, globalization, and ingrained sociological problems pretense more crime control threats which are beyond the abilities and capabilities of traditional police. In Pakistan, it is quite prevalent that we still are facing the problems related to safety and security as we have fifty years ago.

In nutshell, the corruption is a prevalent phenomenon in police department. Socio-economic growth of a state directly belongs to the law and order situation. The law and order is based on the efficiency and effectiveness of law enforcement agencies particularly police. Police department of Pakistan is not yet established itself as ‘an institution’ due the corruption, bribery, nepotism, favoritism, political influence and red tapism. The above mentioned factors are required to be curtailed before implementing those policies to reform police which are not practical in Pakistan. For making police reforms, Australian and New York police models are the best examples.

The writer is a PhD scholar and author of various books on international relations, criminology and gender studies. He can be reached at fastian.mentor@gmail.com