Whether it is improving service delivery, changing public opinion about ‘the least trusted institution’ in the country – also considered the most feared and corrupt, or ensuring the implementation of an accountability mechanism, the police force has been unsuccessful.

According to some former senior police officers, 17 commission reports (since 1969), and independent analyst, police in Pakistan are faced with numerous challenges that are both complex and multidimensional. One of these is insufficient budget allocations.

The annual budget allocation for police in all provinces has a visible trend – a consistent annual increase of 9 to 10 percent. Total allocation for the year 2019-20 for the Punjab is Rs 115 billion, for Sindh Rs 98.5 billion, for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Rs 44 billion, for Balochistan Rs 28 billion and for the ICT Rs 7.5 billion.

A report titled Good Administration Standards for Police Stations 2016 by the federal and provincial ombudsmen submitted to the Supreme Court of Pakistan found that police stations were highly under-resourced and under-staffed. In addition, lack of basic utilities like fuel, stationery and food are hurdles in ensuring better performance at police stations.

A report of the International Crises Group 2016 states that one of the major impediments to proper functioning of the police is the lack of adequate financial resources. According to the ombudsmen report, staff at police stations tend to engage in the collection of funds ‘through other means’ due to lack of funds.

Sarmad Saeed Khan, a former additional inspector general (AIG) and head of Welfare and Finance, Punjab Police says that insufficient human resources, financial constraints, and poor infrastructure indicate that reforms have not been introduced seriously.

“The annual increase in budget is due to a few regular features like yearly increments, additional allowances announced by governments, and salaries of new recruits. Budget figures also show that salaries constitute 83 to 84 percent of budget and other non-developmental expenditures add another 9 to 10 percent. Same is the situation with training budget. A major portion of the budget is normally spent on salaries.”

A comparison of total provincial budget allocations against population of relevant jurisdictions shows that Punjab Police is the most under budgeted police organisation. The average annual spending on police can be calculated by dividing population of the province with the total annual budget allocation.

“The calculation shows that each person living in the Punjab is spending only Rs 1,046 on its Police Department. Other provinces are better off such as Sindh, where each citizen spends Rs 2,057, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Rs 1,572, Balochistan Rs 2,032 and the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) Police, where the allocation stands the highest with Rs 3,742”, Khan adds.

Out of the total budget allocation to provincial Police Departments, each district is allocated its share of budget. This district police budget has two major portions, which are salary and non-salary. The non-salary portion includes funds for fuel, stationery, utility bills, cost of investigations, rewards and others. Further, allocation or distribution at the level of police stations is carried out by the head of district police keeping in view the operational and administrative requirements.

A comparative study of funds for cost of investigation conducted by the Pakistan Forum for Democratic Policing (PFDP) in 2019 shows that most of the police stations in the country are receiving a maximum of 300 litres of fuel per month and a maximum of two vehicles (2006 model), one for investigation and the other for operations.

It is surprising to see that the Punjab has five times more cases registered than Sindh but the cost of investigation is less than double that of Sindh. Total cases registered in the Punjab for the year 2018 were 409,030 and funds allocated for investigation were Rs 510 million (Rs 1,247 per case) for the year 2018-19. For the same period for Sindh Rs 321 million were allocated for 83,336 cases (Rs 3,852 per case) registered. Keeping in view the comparison of average investigation cost allocated to Sindh, the allocation to Punjab should be Rs 1,576 million, which means thrice the current allocation.

Muhammad Ali, who leads the PFDP’s initiative, says that each police station needs an additional amount of Rs 0.7 million beyond what the budget provides it to cater for fuel, utilities, maintenance and investigation cost.

Another impediment that hinders the capacity building and performance of police is disproportionate allocation of funds, says Ali. “The PFDP study shows that Sindh, KP, Balochistan and the ICT Police are financially better resourced than Punjab. Due to its sheer size, the largest budget allocation to a police department of the country becomes proportionately the smallest when divided over the population of the province and the size of the required infrastructure.”

Though the budget of police departments has seen a gradual rise, the insufficient human resource and infrastructure also impact the performance of police stations.

Syed Ibne Hussain, Punjab’s former inspector general, says that police to population ratio is often considered a criterion to evaluate the sufficiency of police force in a country, city or municipality. It remains a universally accepted criterion for gauging the sufficiency of a specific police force.

This ratio is calculated as number of police officers per 100,000 people or number of citizens per one police officer. Generally, a police to citizen ratio of 1:450 or 220 officers for a population of 100,000 is taken as the yardstick for analysis.

The PFDP report’s data shows that average population to be catered for by a police station in the Punjab is 154,511, Sindh 80,077, KP 104,532, Balochistan 95,957 and in ICT is 91,208. Keeping in view the average in all provinces and the ICT, it can be concluded that Punjab needs more police stations.

In terms of infrastructure, it is found that provinces such as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan are able to develop their basic police infrastructure better than Punjab and Sindh. In Balochistan there is only one police station in a rented building out of a total 130 stations. In KP, 273 out of 292 police stations are in official buildings. The Punjab, Sindh, and the ICT still have a long way to go in this regard with 127, 148 and 8 police stations working in rented or non-official buildings respectively.

Achieving infrastructure independence for police stations in the Punjab and Sindh is much more serious, demanding a consistent funding plan, says Ibne Hussain. “Apart from infrastructural development and insufficient human resources, positive results from police force cannot be achieved without providing them with other basic necessities like accommodation, medical facility, better transportation and equipment.”

The ombudsmen’s report recommends that every police station must have its own budget based on its specific needs, which should not be re-appropriated out of police stations by any authority and that every police station must be provided a full years’ requirements in their budget including the entire investigation cost.

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