The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has punished more than 400 police officials for their alleged involvement in corrupt practices, negligence and having links with criminals.

Although many people laud the government for what they call taking a commendable step, it also shows that criminals cannot go unchecked if they are not supported by police.

According to officials, over 400 police personnel of different ranks have been sacked and suspended in parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa during the past one year on charges of involvement in criminal activities and violating the police rules. Inquires against many others are in the pipeline.

Of them over 100 have been punished, many of them sacked and suspended, only in Peshawar district for corrupt practices, negligence and other criminal acts.

Recently, three senior police officers -- SP Rahim Shah and DSPs Tajjamul Khan and Banaras Khan -- were sacked in Peshawar. Mr Shah was given shoulder promotion to SP level and assigned with a sensitive duty to supervise the entire rural areas of Peshawar, which is linked with several tribal and semi-tribal regions.

It is considered a laudable step of provincial government and police department to implement the policy of reward and punishment on the basis of performance as it will improve governance in the province and provide relief to citizens.

Action against the dishonest, negligent and corrupt officials is appreciated because over 800 police personnel have so far rendered sacrifices of their lives in the line of duty, setting an example for their colleagues to follow them as any kind of dishonesty will be tantamount to betrayal of their blood.

The process of inquiry and inspection is a regular feature in the police department and anyone can submit application against any of the personnel with required proofs, but taking action against such official purely depends on the inquiry officer concerned.

However, reports say that a number of the sacked policemen have been reinstated after submitting appeal with the relevant courts. They were declared innocent and enable to get all the dues, perks and privileges, the reports say. The suspended officials got benefit from the courts because of poor investigation and inquiry against them.

Poor investigation is one of the main causes, which always help the outlaws to get benefits from the courts even in terrorism-related cases but police never bother to improve the capacity of the investigators to ensure conviction of the outlaws.

Although a strong need was felt since long to build the capacity of police investigation wing keeping in view the use of modern technology in crimes, successive governments never paid proper attention to it.

During the past few years, thousands of terrorist acts have taken place in different areas of the province but police always “close” the files owing to lack of investigation skills.

The first-ever school of investigation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was set up in Hayatabad in June 2014 to build the capacity of investigation officers and ensure conviction of those involved in cases of serious nature, particularly terrorism.

This institution is meant to enable the police investigators to conduct investigations on scientific lines, which in turn would have definitely positive effects on the conviction rate and the overall working of police. This school is for low ranking officials. However, the same training and refresher courses are also needed for the high ranking officers, especially those conducting inquiries against their junior colleagues and subordinates.

The involvement of any official of law enforcement agencies in any kind of criminal activity needs to be checked thoroughly and with an iron hand but still there seems no mechanism to monitor activities of the law enforcers to minimise their involvement in crimes.

Usually action is taken against an official when stories about his involvement in criminal activities start appearing in media. Same was the case of the sacked SP and DSPs. They were suspended and transferred when newspapers carried stories against them.

During background interviews with some senior officers, it was learnt that personal inquiries were conducted against the officials only at the time of their recruitment. After their appointment, there is no check on their movement, telephone calls and interaction with criminals. The sources said that some of the policemen in Peshawar wanted to be posted in rural areas to keep contacts with Lashkar-i-Islam, other banned organisations and smugglers of narcotics and livestock to earn money.

They said that police high ups should monitor the activities of all those policemen, who were posted near the border of tribal areas so that kidnapping for ransom, extortion and other crimes could be controlled.

The residents of the provincial metropolis say that it is a good news that internal accountability in the police department has been started but for the purpose the high up will have to keep their eyes and ears open and take prompt action against all those involved in fake encounters, fake raids, fake cases about seizure of weapons, narcotics and extra-judicial killings.

However, the plan to make police a public-friendly department is yet to succeed because misuse of official powers, keeping people in habeas corpus, torture on people and registration of late FIRs are still common but people cannot approach the central police office for lodging complains with relevant officials owing to security barriers.

The level of complaints about police highhandedness can be judged easily from press conferences and protest demonstrations, held by citizens against the law enforcers. If police department arranges complaints boxes on the premises of different press clubs in the province, the IGP will get feedback from public about performance of police.

On several occasions, the arms and ammunition produced during press conferences by police to claim that the same was recovered from criminals were rusty and old-fashioned. The latest and costly arms seized by police are reportedly kept by the officials themselves.

In the past, only high ranking officers used to hold press conferences but now the officials of every level can be seen on television screen and in newspapers without any check by the department.

The DIG training could not be approached by telephone to get his version about the ongoing training of police officials. However, Riaz Ahmed, a police spokesman, said that internal accountability was meant to purge the force of corrupt elements.

“IGP Nasir Hussain has clearly asked the officials to prove credibility and honesty otherwise strict action will be taken against all those found guilty of corruption and negligence in duty,” he said.

About the punishment to police personnel, the spokesman said that about 450 personnel were awarded different kinds of punishments but most of them were sacked across the province. He said that the action was taken after conducting probe into allegations against them.

About the reinstatement of the sacked officials, he said that police department could not snatch the right from anyone to move a court for seeking justice and proving himself /herself innocent.

Similarly, he said that there was need for professional training and capacity building of police investigators and that’s why the process was initiated where the investigators were imparted training to ensure convictions of criminals.

Mr Ahmed said that the training was imparted to different ranks of officials including DSPs to improve their performance.

Published in Dawn, October 28th, 2014