The institution of police is losing its moral and operational authority as means of social control that has resulted in a phenomenal increase in violent crimes, terrorism and human rights violations. There is a need to establish an effective mechanism for monitoring and evaluating police, which should be made service-oriented and citizen-friendly.
This was observed by office bearers of different civil society organisations – under the umbrella of ‘Working Group for Democratic Policing’ comprising Rozan, Shehri-CBE, Aurat Foundation, Centre for Peace and Development Initiative (CPDI), Strengthening Partnership Organisation (SPO), Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child, War against Rape (WAR), Shirkatgah and Individual Land – including Mehnaz Rehman, Babar Bashir, Khateeb Ahmed, Illahi Bux Baloch, in an statement issued Thursday.
The civil society activists were of the view that the policing institution not only safeguards the rights of the people but also acts on implementing the authority for laws, but unfortunately police have never been a public policy agenda in Pakistan. “The Pakistani governments, keeping in view the immediate needs at the time of partition, adopted the previous laws, but with the development all over the world and recent incidents have brought a new concept of democratic and people-friendly policing,” they said, adding that policing not only includes the agenda of implementing the state’s writ but also ensures protection of the rights of people, besides maintaining law and order situation.
In a charter of demands, it was further demanded that police be reformed in such a way that it becomes accountable to the law and not a law unto itself. Policing is accountable to democratic government structures and the community; it is transparent in its activities; gives top operational priority to protecting lives and rights of individuals; protects human rights; provides society with professional services and is representative of the community it serves.
The activists also expressed concerns that the civil society feels that the main burden of containing and defeating terrorism is borne by the police services and police are already shouldering major burden of fighting terrorists and giving immense sacrifices in the struggle. They demanded increase in opportunities for women in police, particularly at the decision making level and creating a conducive environment for the purpose.
“The civil society feels that for police to be effective, they need to be trained better, well-equipped, free from political influence and corruption and most importantly are law abiding. The process of police reforms must be taken out of the cold storage and put upfront.” It was demanded in the statement that strong oversight and accountability mechanism be established, including an authority to deal with complaints against the police in order to counter deeply ingrained impunity and help win the trust of the local community.
“Elected representatives as well as representatives from the civil society should be included in such forums,” the statement added. However, the police are ill-equipped for the purpose and the civil society demands that the genuine needs of the police should be met immediately and their sacrifices be recognised and valued, the statement concluded.
