IT is not just weak prosecution that allows the accused in Pakistan to sneak out routinely: the police here have perfected many other, simpler options for easily losing suspects. Frequently, undertrial prisoners miraculously unlock their handcuffs, scale walls and disappear into thin air unnoticed by their police escort. Cases have been registered, the ‘negligent’ policemen have been reprimanded and suspended and long-drawn-out inquiries conducted — to little effect. Scenes outside courts across the country confirm there are far too many undertrials for the ever vulnerable police force to handle. Corruption, incompetence, fear of the better-armed criminals, there may be many reasons why fleeing from custody by the men on trial is so uncomplicated. While a couple of in-house inquiries into some such escapes in Okara and Rawalpindi do not go deep into the details of all contributing factors, there are suggestions of a few measures to avoid future incidents.

Some of these proposed steps reflect the desperation within the force to live up to its reputation as the first-stage arbiter of the law. The authors of one of these reports appear to reassert the police’s right to act as arbiter at a basic level when they ask for restoring to the police the power to fetter prisoners. On a more reasonable note, they call for video trials but the extent of the problem is truly revealed in suggestions such as those which seek better-quality handcuffs as a way of preventing prisoner escapes. This is just one of the many other aspects highlighted by the reports — one whose discovery should not really have required investigation by senior policemen. And since the issues have been pretty clear to all concerned for long, these two findings do not inspire too much hope of urgent action and reform. There is a danger of this initiative meeting the fate of most such probes in the country. It may again prove to be the ritual that must follow a goof-up somewhere. Given this record the chances of substantial remedy following a more formal diagnosis are not very bright, unless someone is actually ready to break from the past and impart clear meaning to these inquiries.