Accountability of police in Pakistan is a major concern for all stakeholders. There were attempts at reforming the police under the Police Order 2002 during the Musharraf regime but these could not materialise. Of late, there have been calls about carrying on with the unfinished agenda of police reforms and making it a people-friendly service rather than a brutal force that treats citizens like slaves.

While Sindh and Balochistan are still following the Police Act of 1861, the Punjab government is planning to set up an independent Police Complaints Authority under Article 103 of the Police Order. Similarly, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government introduced a law in 2016 that is an improvement on the Police Order 2002.

Called Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police Order (KPPO), this law provides for district and provincial public safety commissions of elected representatives and well-reputed citizens to check and support police. The safety commission’s functions will include evaluating police performance, holding inquiries, and recommending police reforms, etc.

While these plans are in their infancy, one has to see what necessitates the need for having independent accountability mechanisms. Are the internal mechanisms within the police serving their purpose?

Additional Inspector General of Police (Addl IG), Operations, Punjab Arif Nawaz, says they do have an internal accountability mechanism but it is not generally acceptable to the public. "People have a perception that guilty police officers are suspended, transferred or dismissed from service in extreme cases but ultimately they get reinstated on important posts. So, they question the credibility of this internal police accountability system and are justified to an extent."

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Nawaz cites the example of Punjab, "Over the last five years, on average around 52,000 police officers from the rank of constable to Deputy Superintendant of Police (DSP) have been granted different punishments in a year. The mildest of these punishments is censure and dismissal is the worst. Keeping in view the total strength of the Punjab police that hovers around 200,000, the percentage of officers punished comes to around 25 per cent which is no small figure," he believes.

"It’s not that violators are not punished. The fact that they get relief and punishment overturned easily is the issue." He points out there are a large number of forums available to such policemen where they can get relief after a couple of years.

This is quite unlike of what is the case with the army where an officer facing punishment has just one right of appeal. "Here one can file appeals with superior officials one after the other, services tribunals and lower and superior judiciary and get relief."

Lower rank officials, however, have a grudge against senior officers who they claim punish them to save their own skin. Ali, a low-ranking police official who wants to be identified with his surname only, alleges that on many occasions the appellate authorities give relief to them for this very reason. "They let us go when they realise the real culprits were our seniors."

The official says when Sri Lankan cricket team was attacked in Lahore by terrorists, the court had issued orders that senior officers responsible for it would not be posted on field posts but today all of them are enjoying prize postings. Similarly, he says, "the District Police Officer (DPO) of Sialkot who was standing next to the mob, lynching two real brothers to death has been awarded regular promotions and appointments. The officers in the Police Service of Pakistan (PSP) who mostly join service after passing competitive exams consider themselves to be above any accountability."

Arif Nawaz, who has served in different provinces during his 30-year professional career, disagrees with this assertion. He says the delinquent PSP officers are also punished but it is the federal government that acts against them. "It’s the establishment division or the prime minister can take punitive action against them."

He enlists the most common violations committed by the police officers who have to deal with the public. "These include non-registration of FIRs, wrong investigation, rude behaviour with citizens, corruption, torture, causing death of suspects in custody, and so on. All these violations are taken seriously by inquiry officers from within the police and the responsibility for establishing external mechanisms like the public safety commissions lies solely with the government."

"There used to be a major issue with the quality of inquiries conducted by police officers who were also burdened with the task of performing field duties. That would result in loopholes that would ultimately benefit the punished officers. To counter this, a post of Additional IG (AG) Discipline and Inquiries has been created to head the inquiries department. A whole cadre of police officers specialising in inquiry skills will work in this department and only carry out inquiries," adds Nawaz.

There is hope that KPPO provides for a Regional Police Complaint Authority (RPCA) consisting of a retired judge, a civil servant, and a professional. The law prescribes five-year imprisonment for police officers making unlawful entry into private premises and seizing property, arresting and torturing people unlawfully. Besides, the law states district police officers can also be transferred by the IGP on the recommendation of two-thirds vote of the district assembly or provincial public safety commission following an independent inquiry.