MUCH has been said about Pakistanis’ lack of access to justice — and rightly so. From the convoluted workings of the court system, leading to a massive backlog of cases, to inefficient investigation and poor prosecution, the troubles are myriad. There have been efforts to address the issues and pledges from the corridors of justice to resolve the pending cases on an urgent footing; these are to be praised. But often overlooked is the single point from where access to justice begins: a citizen’s ability to have a complaint heard, recorded and registered. Only when this first step is achieved can there begin to be any hope of accountability. But how many take this first, crucial step seriously? Very few apparently. For instance, it emerged in Islamabad on Wednesday that of an estimated 6,000 complaints lodged with the police helpdesk Rescue15 over the past 10 months in the capital city, a mere 1,568 cases had actually been registered — ie no action was taken. The police record was examined on the directives of the recently appointed IGP Ahsan Younas to ascertain the actual crime rate in the capital. The registered cases include murder and attempts thereof, kidnappings, robberies and vehicle theft, amongst other categories. The tiny number of cases registered versus complaints that went unrecorded provides a measure of how the system works to the detriment of the aggrieved parties.

If this is the state of the relatively well-policed and geographically contained Islamabad Capital Territory, one can only imagine the situation in other areas. It is no wonder that amongst the citizenry in general, the belief has taken root that there is little point in approaching the law enforcers. Thus the incidence of crimes being reported, especially the ‘hidden’ ones such as rape, remains misleadingly low — dangerously so. For its part, the police force across the country is under-resourced and ill-trained; unresolved but registered crimes on the books reflect badly on the force. This double bind must be resolved if a way forward is to be found.

Published in Dawn, December 17th, 2021