'A police system…cannot be artificially manufactured as an exhibition model for display to ecstatic visitors. It cannot be the object of admiration detached from the society in which it functions, and it cannot be a product of exchange or importation. A police system cannot be transformed from top to bottom unless the society it serves is transformed as well'.

Laudably, Pakistan is the only South Asian Commonwealth country to have amended its colonial Police Act in 2002. The other countries have archaic laws from 1860s except Maldives, which has the dubious distinction of being the only Commonwealth country that has no law governing the police. Unlike the colonial laws, which were enacted make the police "a more efficient instrument for the prevention and detection of crime", the Pakistan Police Order 2002 seeks to establish a police organisation that functions according to the "Constitution, law and democratic aspirations of the people". It mandates the police to be "professional, service-oriented, and accountable to the people". With inbuilt mechanisms to curb illegitimate political interference and enhance police accountability through civilian oversight, the Pakistan law is in consonance with contemporary police legislations.

Since its inception, the provincial governments have resisted the implementation of the new law. It put in place systems and institutions to check illegitimate political interference in the working of the police, but provincial governments, which had been in control of the police forces since independence, saw this as encroachment upon their constitutional right to maintain law and order. As a result the law was amended in 2004 and some of its systems to check political interference were diluted and the provincial governments retained the much desired powers of appointment, transfer and promotion over the police officers. These are the powers that play a huge role in making the police subservient to their political masters.

On paper, despite its limitations, this law is still much better that those of its South Asian counterparts. But in practice, little has changed in Pakistan. For example, since the promulgation of this law in 2002 - with its emphasis on security of tenure of police officers and a fixed term of 3 years for Provincial Police Officer (PPO) - Punjab Police has already witnessed 4 changes of PPO. Additionally, civilian oversight mechanisms have still not been established in most districts or at the provincial nor at the national level. Where they exist, these institutions are largely weak, under-funded and lack police cooperation . The police remains as unaccountable as ever.

Not only do the police continue to remain corrupt, illegally detain and torture suspects; they have not even shied away from brutally and publicly attacking journalists and human rights defenders with impunity. Recently on 3 May 2005, during peaceful demonstrations in honour of World Press Freedom Day, approximately 50 journalists were injured when police baton charged demonstrators marching in the center of Lahore, and as many as 60 journalists were forcibly detained for two hours at a police station in Islamabad. Earlier in April, about 50 journalists traveling with Asif Ali Zardari - opposition leader and husband of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto - were surrounded by police as they exited the plane and forced to surrender their camera equipment, audio recorders, and mobile phones. Those who resisted were slapped and abused by the police.

Ms. Jehangir correctly draws the connection between the political milieu of a state and the police that serves it. Perhaps it is unsurprising that a government that has recently put a gang-rape victim under house arrest so that she is unable to attend an international conference (to prevent her from "tarnishing the image of the country") does not provide a police that respects democratic values. In countries where democratic values are not respected by the government and people, it is unrealistic to expect the police to be democratic in their approach. In fact, experts have argued that in societies that show little value for life, respect for law is difficult if not impossible and in such situations importing mechanisms like civilian oversight will not succeed just as other institutional expression of liberal democratic ideal have not succeeded. This is not to say that police should not be reformed or made accountable but that it will not be reformed unless the socio-political environment in which it functions are also reformed. You cannot have a military dictator at the helm of affairs and expect the police service to be a model of democratic reform.

Swati Mehta
Sr. Research Assistant
CHRI