LAHORE: Pointing out inadequacies in the existing mechanism for punishing officials, Lahore Capital City Police Officer Umar Sheikh has proposed introduction of ‘court martial’ in police department, on the pattern of Pakistan Army, to penalise ‘disobedient, violent and offending’ employees to provide relief and sense of security to the members of public visiting the police stations and offices of the capital police.

While submitting recommendations to Punjab Inspector General of Police Inam Ghani, the CCPO proposed that the provincial government might be moved for new legislation to introduce ‘police court martial’ under article 8(3) of the Constitution.

The CCPO submitted that the prevailing disciplinary rules of police department did not cater to the frequent misconduct committed by police officers, bringing bad name to the department and hampering the maintenance of law and order in the province.

“In view of the above [mentioned facts] it is requested that the government of Punjab may be moved for new legislation regarding dedicated Accountability Rules for Police Department, including the process of Court Martial as available in the Pakistan Army, so that the police officers’ accountability/discipline may be ensured in the interest of general public,” reads the letter sent to the IGP.

It further stated that it was high time to review disciplinary rules of police department, rather to devise a new accountability regime to ensure service delivery to the public and better policing in the province.

“Presently, E&D Rules, 1975 are applicable to the uniformed officers/officials of police, while ministerial staff is being governed by Civil Servants Rules 1999”, it further reads, adding that the ineffectiveness of these rules was quite evident from the statistics of the last five years.

The CCPO, in the letter, informed that despite the fact that every year 25-30 percent of the force was being made accountable, no visible improvement in the officials’ attitude and conduct had been observed and the public, the media and the non-government organisations (NGOs) are persistently complaining about the misconduct of police.

Giving a reference of statistics pertaining to last five years, he stated that as many as 57,318 Punjab police officials were awarded various punishments in 2015 on various charges, including misconduct, disobedience, embezzlement, bribery, faulty investigation, murder in custody, etc.

This number was 61,422 in 2016, and 92,521 in 2017, he said, adding that 82,170 police officials/officers were handed down punishments in 20118.

In 2019, the then Punjab IGP had introduced a policy of bringing punishment ratio in police down when senior officers took up the issue, arguing that excessive penalties were lowering the force’s morale.

Though as many as 61,573 guilty Punjab police officials/officers were given minor and major punishments in 2019, the public continued to suffer at the hands of such habitual violators.

Similarly, the CCPO stated that the misconduct of staff, particularly of accounts branch, was being reported in the form of embezzlement of funds in various field/units of the police department.

“It would not be out of place to mention here that Article 8(3) of the Constitution also takes into account the formulation of such laws as an exemption from fundamental rights enunciated in the Constitution for every citizen of Pakistan”, the letter stated.

The insertion of such exemption from fundamental rights is merely to ensure discipline in the ranks and file of a law enforcement agency, including police, responsible for maintenance of law and order in society, it argued.

“Absence of such laws for the accountability of police force has greatly hampered the discipline of the police force leading to [making it] a permanent target of human rights activists, NGOs, media, political parties and the judiciary”, reads the letter.

The CCPO stated the long and slow processes, multiple rights of appeal, intervention of various layers of civil courts and service tribunals has made the prevalent accountability regime nothing but a “futile exercise”. Despite regular departmental inquiries, the defaulters given major penalties for their glaring misconduct find relief and re-enter the organisation with all perks and privileges, he concludes while asserting that the ‘police court martial’ would be the best option to take the guilty officers to task in true spirit.

Published in Dawn, October 9th, 2020