Every news channel has the same story: the Crime Control Department in Punjab (CCD) is cleaning the state by killing the suspected criminals, a road to just, fair and crime-free Punjab.
The CCD was established by The Police Order (Amendment) Ordinance 2025 to combat heinous crimes like dacoity, murder, extortion, rape, kidnapping, etc, as mentioned in the Fourth Schedule. After the formation of the CCD in late July 2025, almost 250 alleged criminals (suspects) have been killed by the CCD.
Nevertheless, a 60 per cent reduction in the crime rate is claimed by the government since the CCD’s formation. The government's short-sightedness and the apathy of the educated elite of our society in this regard are a serious concern.
Such actions not only undermine Article 9 (right to life) and Article 10A (right to fair trial) of the constitution, but also violate Nemo Judex in Causa Sua, that no one can be judge, jury and executioner on their own. Unfortunately, such breaches also ensure that the public’s lack of trust in the judicial system increases to a level where they take the law into their own hands altogether. This may soon shatter the trust of the public in rule of law and institutions rather than restoring order in society.
We have hundreds of examples from all over the world, including Pakistan. During the Philippines ‘war on drugs, it is estimated that more than 12,000 people were killed extrajudicially. The human rights violations reached a peak and international intervention was needed.
Even in Pakistan, the licence to kill has backfired, exacerbating criminal networks rather than suppressing them. In 2019, the Sahiwal incident became a viral story where the CTD brutally killed three family members, including a 13-year-old girl. Later on, even the government had to accept it as a mistake on the part of the department. The public applause for extrajudicial acts is nothing but a societal fallout, fueling the generational cycles of vengeance, without a right to fair trial, without fulfilling policing duty, the basic duty to investigate, without following the law.
Instead, what could have been a more civil, legal and rational approach would be to invest all this money, all these efforts, all this attention towards a stronger criminal justice system – a system where the money could have been used to appoint temporary judges, to expedite the trials of heinous criminals, to protect the witnesses against threats and to ensure their trust in police protection, investigation and judicial system.
As far as the police are concerned, it would have been a wiser choice to conduct workshops, monetary incentives, recognition and promotion of officers on the basis of honest inquiry and sound investigation. This would have been a modern, humanitarian, legal, rational and sound approach.
Pakistan is not a country of uneducated goons, but a country with more than 60 per cent of its population comprising young people. There is no place for barbarism in the modern world, yet it is disturbing to see how people – without knowing the long-term consequences – are celebrating the kangaroo courts of the streets.
The silence of the educated class is a serious concern, pushing Pakistan towards lawlessness. A society that trades due process for quick justice will soon find neither. The government must consider the decision again, the extrajudicial killings must stop, police should be trained and educated and courts should be supported to dispose of matters more quickly by way of legal help.
The writer is a corporate lawyer and white-collar crimes defence attorney practising in Lahore. He specialises in tax, commercial disputes andarbitration.