Police

Police Custodial Deaths

 Mentally handicapped from birth, our society never had any place for him.

 This isolation probably led him to frequently run away from home.

 Eventually, out of desperation, Salahuddin’s family tattooed their contact details on

his arm, hoping beyond hope that they would be called if he ever got into any
trouble.

 Salahuddin allegedly became involved in a life of petty crime. We don’t know if that
is truth, because he never lived for his trial. Regardless, one can forgive these
allegations even if true, given his mental condition.

 Article 14(2) goes on to specifically target custodial torture by police forces as

illegal.

 Pakistan has also signed and ratified the United Nations Convention
against Torture, which according to recent international jurisprudence, makes it
incumbent on signatory states to make effective laws to criminalize, prohibit and
prevent custodial torture.

Recommended measures:
 Independent monitoring of police stations through CCTV cameras and police
vehicles through GPS trackers

 Written and reasoned orders to be produced by the police at the time of arrest of
an accused

 Mandatory communication of an arrest by the police to the family of the accused

at the time of the arrest

 Creation of an independent internal accountability force within the police

 Mandatory psychological evaluations of police recruits

 Compensation for victims and their families

 Police needs to improve law and order in the rural areas because that is where most
Pakistanis reside and there is likelihood that local influential people could exert
pressure on police in such areas. In such situations, the role of the police is even
more important in terms of differentiating the truth from false and motivated
criminal cases.

 DACs consist of a retired district and session judge with significant experience in
criminal cases, a superintendent of police investigation, an investigating officer, a
prosecutor, a senior lawyer with experience in criminal cases and a young lawyer.

 DACs are to evaluate judgments passed in murder cases and review acquittals
and bail cases.

Government actions (Truncated role of police)

 Imran Khan has given a go-ahead to the home departments to ‘take over control of
the police’ in Punjab, KPK and Islamabad.

 Under the new system, the major functions of the police would be performed
by the deputy commissioners (DCs) who have been given judicial powers of
22A and 22B besides authority of inspections of police stations that earlier were sole
discretion of the police.

 “A new parallel police force will be raised that shall be under the control
of the DCs of the two provinces and Islamabad. The police officers shall be
answerable to the DCs in crime control, law & order and other public complaints,”
say documents.

 The police would function under the DCs while the police officers (RPO, DPO,
CPO) posted for field assignments would have to get certification of
ability before carrying out inspections of the police stations

 The powers of the provincial police officers have been reduced in making
appointments of the police officers at various levels. These powers have
been transferred to a high level search committee which shall be formed at provincial
level.

(Committee will comprise of DG, up to 5 directors (retd. Pos), prosecutor, and a

lawer)

 Internal accountability: The internal accountability branch will be placed

under Additional IG (IGP for compliance).

 Special Branches under Chief Ministers

o The Special Branch shall be placed directly under the chief minister.
Earlier, all the special branches directly worked under the IGP and formed
the only reporting agency to the government.

o All officials were from police and hardly reported illegal

detentions/arrests/raids/encounters (extra-judicial killings) to the
government.

o Their placement under the chief minister will give them more autonomy
and freedom of reporting of police excesses.