Pakistan’s Police System in Shambles, Akin to a Private Militia
In a recent interview with the European Foundation for South Asian Studies, a Pakistani journalist and human rights activist, Sanna Ijaz, made the claim that Pakistan had been transformed into a prison state. In the course of her remarks, Ijaz touched upon the reluctance of the Pakistani State to reform its judicial system and approach to tackling crime.
As a journalist who ran afoul of Pakistan’s powerful military, Ijaz speaks from experience when she criticizes Pakistan’s legal system. Ijaz’s association with the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) saw her terminated from her job as a news anchor at Pakistan Television (PTV). After this incident, Ijaz survived three assassination attempts. Upon receiving death threats over the phone, Ijaz approached the Peshawar Police, however despite her describing the initial cooperation of the Police, not much progress could be made as a sham enquiry was instituted into her allegations and the investigation was stalled.
Many of Ijaz’s colleagues in the PTM have either been arrested or killed by police or unknown assailants who are suspected by the PTM to be acting on behalf of the military. In many cases, PTM members have been arrested under a miscellany of broadly worded sections of the Pakistan Penal Code. Typical charges include sedition (124-A), defamation (500), waging war against Pakistan (121), promoting enmity between different groups (153-A), provocation to cause riot (153), statement causing public mischief (505). In this process, the strength of the charges is of little concern. The nature of the process itself constitutes a punishment, with bail being difficult to obtain and Courts under much pressure to deliver verdicts amenable to the Police and Military.
A popular aphorism about conservative philosophy and the law posits that there must be in-groups whom the law protects, but does not bind, and out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect. This idea provides an almost perfect overview of the practical functioning of Pakistan’s legal system. The Pakistan Police forces are under-staffed and do not receive adequate resources. Junior officers in the hierarchy have no choice but to follow the orders of their superior officers, who often tend to be closely connected with powerful feudal landlords, businessmen, politicians or local crime groups. In addition to this, the Pakistan Police have to routinely deal with terrorists as well as hardened criminals.
As a result of operating in a dangerous environment of hardened crime, when it comes to suspected criminals or disfavoured groups, the police have a carte blanche to ignore procedure and engage in a policy of extra-judicial executions, enforced disappearances and custodial torture of suspects. Cases against this sort of abuse of police power are rarely filed, because the police tend to harass those who do so along with threats of dire consequences. The full range of these abuses was catalogued in a 102-page report by Human Rights Watch.
The personification of this approach to policing is Rao Anwar Ahmed Khan, a former Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) in the Malir District of Karachi. Rao Anwar is infamous for having, according to records, 444 killings of criminals in encounters. Not a single policeman was even injured, let alone killed in all these encounters. Well known for his political ties, the extent of his infamy can be gauged by the fact that the US Treasury Department included him on its sanctions list for human rights violations. Anwar has also been accused by many people of being involved in land-grabbing in Karachi, forcing people to sell their land to property developers. On the rare occasions where he has been suspended, his appeals to various Courts have resulted in the suspensions being rapidly overturned. Anwar’s extra-judicial killing of Naqeebullah Mehsud led to his arrest amidst intense public outrage, but he quickly got bail and is currently at large.
The PTMs surge to prominence came about as a direct result of its efforts to secure justice for Naqeebullah Mehsud. It is ironic then, that despite overwhelming evidence of his involvement, criminal sanctions and account freezes by the USA, public outrage, other allegations of criminal abuse of his position of authority and a lengthy and controversial record of extra-judicial killings, Anwar was easily able to secure bail and remains free to this day, while many members of the PTM have either been killed or are languishing in jail on vague charges.
Pakistan’s legal system places an enormous amount of power in its police by virtue of the colonial-era laws and mentality it inherited. The police system however is chronically under-funded and subject to an enormous degree of corruption. In its present form, the police serve only to protect those who are powerful and well-connected, with police harassment and frivolous cases acting as a sword to punish enemies and the bail system and derailed investigations serving as a shield to protect the powerful from any accountability for its actions. The Pakistan police system requires much investment, both in the provision of resources as well as an overhaul of its culture and mechanisms for ensuring impartiality.
