Dhaka tragedy: State didn’t take care of its citizens, says CJP Asif Saeed Khosa

ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Asif Saeed Khosa on Monday said that December 16 has some lessons for the state as it reminds the country of two tragedies – the fall of Dhaka and the Army Public School (APS) massacre. The chief justice said the fall of Dhaka happened because the state did not take care of its citizens.

Justice Khosa in his address to the National Police Academy in the federal capital talked about the incidents that compelled the state to introduce major changes in its policy. “Both these tragic events have some lessons for us,” the CJP said.

The CJP highlighted that APS tragedy shook the whole country and led the nation to look into the approaches that were being used by the state.

“That (APS massacre) was the incident we realised enough is enough,” said CJP Khosa, adding that the massacre also led to the formulation of National Action Plan against terrorism. The CJP said another lesson was that when the country gets together on a single agenda then it can achieve anything. The top judge said that there was a need for the country to once again look for the areas that unite the country and work on those areas.

On the fall of Dhaka, the CJP said, “If the state starts asserting itself too much then people break away from the social contract.” The top judge told the police officers that this is what they have to teach to theunder training officers.

“Time has come to rethink the approach of the police. Police should be perceived as a protector,” remarked Justice Khosa. Unfortunately, he said, there were some incidents in which the role of the police was not seen.

The CJP also spoke about the reforms required to change the police and the reforms undertaken by the police reforms committee. He said the state must safeguard the basic rights of the citizens and if the basic rights were not enforced, the existence of state becomes difficult.