Daily Times

Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed on Thursday expressed concern over the deteriorating law and order situation and increasing crime rate in the country and emphasized the need of adopting proactive approach for prevention and detection of crimes.

A meeting of the Police Reforms Committee (PRC) was held in the Supreme Court of Pakistan chaired by the Chief Justice of Pakistan to review the implementation status of PRC report and its overall impact on policing across the country.

The chief justice in his opening remarks said that the high rate of acquittal, poor investigation, non-usage of modern technology, lack of professional skills and non-responsive attitude of police towards public are key factors adversely affecting the overall performance of the criminal justice system. He opined that motivation which is foremost inspiring factor is not coming in mainstream. The recommendations of Police Reforms Committee should be implemented in effective manner to achieve the required results. The recommendations should not be taken as academic discussion but need to be implemented on the ground to improve the service delivery of the police. Progress should be reflected in each and every district of the country. For improving the standards and quality of policing, efforts should be made for capacity building of all police officers/officials and prosecutors through special and regular trainings.

The chief justice showed his deep concern over poor performance of police department in the province of Sindh and desired that Sindh Police should itself proactively improve its performance rather to have expectations from other departments. He appreciated the performance of Punjab, KP, Balochistan, AJK and Gilgit Baltistan and desired that Islamabad and Sindh Police should also improve its working particularly to address the issue of low conviction rate, which is the one of the major causes of increasing crime rate in the ICT and Sindh.

Justice Umar Ata Bandial, Senior Puisne Judge, appreciated the KP Police working of dispute resolution councils and desired that similar councils should be established countrywide for the amicable settlement of the disputes among the parties.

The chief justice desired from former IGPs, the members of Police Reforms Committee, to share their inputs on overall performance of police department of the country after establishment of the committee.

Justice Umar Ata Bandial expressed that His Lordship is pleased to hear ideas of police chiefs from all over the country. His Lordship emphasized that to improve the criminal justice system, there should be proper coordination between the prosecution and police to make the conviction rate high, the reasons for acquittal should be redressed. “The investigation needs to be modernized. There is lack of professional skills in the police department at lower level. Use of technology and forensic can improve the conviction rate. There should be safe city like projects in all urban cities including Islamabad for better investigation the use of modern techniques should be used to trace crimes expeditiously.”

His Lordship appreciated the optimistic approach of IGPs of KP and Balochistan and desired that the police department should work to build confidence among the general public. Alternate dispute resolution system should be introduced in criminal disputes just like family and civil disputes so that Judiciary of the country can focus on main issues. Major causes for crime rate in our country is being ignored which includes drug, land mafia, smuggling and such like social evils. Theses all areas should be considered by the Police Reforms Committee for the positive improvement in the criminal justice system of the country.