SOME non-government organizations (NGOs) have been blamed for maligning Pakistan’s image by highlighting certain cases of crimes against women. If anybody is to be blamed for maligning the country’s image, it should be the law enforcement authorities and by extension the state — for failing to perform the foremost duty of protecting the people, specially women, against such crimes and ensuring them justice.

Elsewhere abroad prominent crime cases usually surface in the media when the police arrest the accused or when the accused is found guilty by a court of law. It is the job of the law enforcement authorities to put the suspect or accused through the process of law to determine whether he is really guilty. This gives countries the semblance of law and order.

In our country on the other hand, prominent crime cases usually come to light when the victims, specially women, fail to get justice through the law. To add insult to injury, some official or the other invariably tries to defend the accused if not malign the victim. The impression thus created — that crime victims are usually being victimized to save the accused who have influential connections — gives our country the semblance of lawlessness and disorder.

The case of Mukhtaran Mai would probably not have attracted that much international media attention if the guilty had been duly indicted and punished according to the law instead of being summarily set free. Similarly, Dr Shazia Khalid and Sonia Naz would not have become the “celebrities” they have become if they had gotten the slightest ounce of justice through the due process of law.

In fact, Pakistan’s image, as far as treatment of women is concerned, could have been given a big boost in all three cases had the law enforcement authorities handled them the way they should have been handled — with professionalism and with provision of justice as the real objective; in other words, according to the rule of law.

Instead, the image of the Faisalabad police that has emerged from the media coverage of the Sonia Naz case — particularly its shady connections with the Faisalabad excise department — only confirms the general perception of the policeman as an extortionist who rarely distinguishes between the victim/non-guilty and the accused/guilty.

Another case of the police extorting money from and harassing members of the public was also reported in Dawn last week, the victim being a man who claims he lost an eye due to police torture. This case involves the police in Peshawar.

Such reports about corruption and misuse of influence in the police department is evidence of the lack of accountability in the law enforcement authority. This is not surprising because the main accountability body for checking police excesses and abuses under the original Police Order 2002, the high-powered police complaint authorities at the provincial level, was abolished in the name of improving the Police Order 2002 and merged with the ineffective public safety commissions. At the same time, the police complaints authorities at the federal level is yet to be established.

Thus despite the Police Order 2002 and reforms like the PSCs, specialized training and new equipment for the police, the maintenance of law and order appears no better than before, if not worse. All over the country, the law and order maintenance systems seem to be breaking down with daily reports in the newspapers of robberies, dacoities, thefts (specially car and mobile phone snatchings), kidnappings, murders and violence against women.

Within the twin cities, jewellery shops and cash-carrying vans belonging to factories in the I-9 Industrial area have been the targets of broad daylight robberies in recent years. Jewellers in Rawalpindi have resorted to closing down their shops every now and then to protest against the rise in robberies but in vain. Last week, after the robbery of a jewellery shop in Rawalpindi city in which a jeweller was shot and injured, it was reported that the police were accused of detaining and harassing the victims instead of investigating and going after the robbers!

Prominent business entities and businessmen have also been the targets of dacoities in the twin cities. Last year, dacoits robbed the newly opened 7th Avenue shopping centre in Jinnah Supermarket, shooting to death a security guard in the process. Recently, three gun-wielding dacoits tried to rob the house of the owner of a well known bakery in Rawalpindi.

There have been similar reports of robberies in other key commercial and business centres like Sialkot, Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Lahore and Karachi. Let alone foreign investment, even domestic investment is likely to be wary about doing business when the law and order and justice systems are in such a state. Apart from the heavy price which the public has to pay in terms of human suffering, it is the country’s industry and trade which has the most to lose when the law and order machinery breaks down.

Our banker prime minister recognizes this important connection between economic development and the maintenance of law and order. On September 10, speaking at a passing out parade at the Police Academy in Islamabad, he reportedly said that “we ‘must’ recognize” that amongst other things, a ‘rigorous’ enforcement of the laws by the law enforcement agencies” is indispensable for Pakistan to sustain its status as a business, trade and financial centre in South Asia, West Asia and Central Asia.

But what we ‘must’ recognize and do is obviously different from what is actually being done. What is actually happening is that persistent interference by and influence of people outside the department in police investigations is causing problems in the police’s ability to dispense justice, and thus, to maintain law and order. In other words, the rule of men reigns supreme in the police department rather than the rule of laws.

The federal government has apparently come round to realizing this serious handicap and this is why it is reportedly planning to embark on yet another police improving exercise — a $10 million, ADB-assisted, countrywide Police Revamping Project.

Whether it is the Police Order 2002 or the Police Revamping Project, the government will need to ensure the establishment of an effective accountability body on the pattern of the Police Complaints Authorities at the federal and provincial levels. Only such an accountability body can help to abolish the rule of men and establish the rule of law in the police department, enhance legal control over human discretion, and prevent arbitrariness, discrimination and corruption.

The prime minister once said that it is the behaviour of traffic, whether it is orderly or disorderly, which determines the image of the country, whether it is law abiding or law breaking. But an even more important gauge of law and order in a country is the general behaviour and working of its law enforcing authorities.