What does make Pakistan a fragile state? Scholars, historians, subject specialists and policy makers give ample reasons to support their stance but if someone wants to abridge this ambiguous discussion, they can only blame the weak role of institutions for making the state fragile.
People are praising the Punjab police on social media for killing suspects involved in a minor’s rape and murder. The Faisalabad police claimed that in order to get the suspects released, hooligans opened fire on police team, and in retaliation two suspects were killed. These sort of ‘encounters’, where the police claim suspects were killed while escaping from custody or trying to resist arrest, are part of well-worn script jotted down by the authorities.
The response of many people to the encounter where they cheer and commend the police action is indeed horrific. Analysts say lack of justice for victims have fueled public acceptance of extrajudicial killings. The staged shootouts have for decades been used to bypass Pakistan’s cumbersome judicial process. There is no doubt whenever law proves dysfunctional people hail extrajudicial killings. They consider state institutions inept and fragile. They think the judicial system is equivocal, the rule of law is compromising and law and order is pathetic. Owing to the dearth of expeditious justice, people often applaud extrajudicial killings. If extrajudicial killing is the only available option, why do we have the judiciary? Why do we have prosecutions and trials? In a true democratic state, no one is above the law, and whosoever commits a crime must be punished according to the state laws. People have to understand repercussions of extrajudicial killings. It means state institutions and judiciary have failed to dispense justice. It means people can take law into their hands. Such killings deteriorate social fabric of society; weaken state institutions and triggers anarchy. Extrajudicial killings do not counter crimes ostensibly and it is the total failure of Pakistan criminal justice system.
Extrajudicial killing is a serious breach of Pakistan’s moral commitments to the constitution and its obligation under international human rights laws
The role of police is to collect evidences, identify suspects and arrest them. The police shouldn’t act as judges and executioners. This is the responsibility of the judiciary to examine the evidences and give verdicts. But unfortunately police often act like judge and jury; they challenge superiority and authority of concerned state institutions. Shootouts are carried out as retribution by police or are used to cover botched investigations, win awards and rewards and to pacify furious public.
According to the HRCP, more than 4,200 people have been killed in armed encounters with police between the years 2014-2019. More than 85 percent of these shootouts were staged. Analysts believe that a stage and genuine shootout can be distinguished by fatalities. Chief Justice of Supreme Court of India Sharad Arvind Bobde regarding extrajudicial killing says: “I don’t think justice can ever be or ought to be instant. Justice must never ever take the form of revenge. I believe justice loses its character when it becomes revenge”.
The Faisalabad shootout is a big question mark on the judiciary and parliament. Parliament has passed Zainab Alert Response and Recovery Act 2020. Zainab Alert Act directs that “all the cases of abduction, rape and murder of minor shall be required to complete investigations within the period of three months”. It will help to provide speedy system of alerts, responses, recoveries, trial rehabilitation and halt criminal acts against minors. But this kind of shootout raises many serious questions like. Is there any need for the Zainab Alert Act? Why should state spend billions for implementation of this act?
Extrajudicial killing is a serious breach of Pakistan’s moral commitments to the constitution and its obligation under international human rights laws. The power to arbitrarily deprive someone’s life should not lie with the state or its agents. According to the Article 9 of the Constitution of Pakistan, no person shall be deprived of life without due process of law. A criminal whatever his crime and however gruesome it may be has a constitutional right to the due process of law. There is an immense need to create an independent system to investigate such encounters but not within the departments because according to a research report published by the Human Rights Watch, departmental inquires to hold police officers responsible for illicit acts are extremely rare. Extrajudicial killing is a massive challenge for the judiciary. Authorities should take punitive measures in this regard.
People are happy today and are praising the police; tomorrow, the police can pick up any other four and kill them for any reason. Being a democratic state, people have to be careful while washing their skin with deep cleanser because this may peel off the entirety of democratic sensibility that they have tried to accumulate since independence. So, people should stop supporting this illegitimate act of police and demand stern punishments of this heinous crime through judicial processes.
The writer is a public policy analyst and has an interest in geopolitics. He can be reached at [email protected] and tweets @OmerAliAwan