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IN most countries, one of the worst things you can do is to kill, hurt or even impede a police officer in the discharge of his duties. You can be anybody, but the cops will make sure you pay the price.
In Pakistan, however, politicians, army officers and now lawyers think nothing of slapping and abusing police officers who are just doing their job. Never mind that, over the years, thousands of them have lost their lives to terrorists and criminals.
According to a recent news item, lawyers in an Islamabad district court severely beat up Javed Sultan, an ASI, in the presence of the magistrate, Jawwad Hussain Adil. Apart from trying to ‘pacify’ the lawyers, the magistrate did little else.
Many lawyers have political connections.
In a country where our judiciary issues contempt notices at the drop of a hat, one would have expected Mr Adil to have the violent lawyers locked up straight away. But shockingly, the assault continued outside the court.
The background to this episode makes for interesting reading. Apparently, the police officer had stopped a motorcyclist the previous evening to check his documents. As he had none, the motorbike was impounded as per rules, and then released when its owner Imdadullah, who is a lawyer, produced the papers the following morning.
Instead of dropping matters, Imdadullah proceeded to the district court and filed a complaint against the cop, who also happened to be there. On seeing him, the enraged lawyer and his colleagues proceeded to thrash the unfortunate Javed Sultan. According to an eyewitness: “They beat him up… He fell on the table and the table’s edge jabbed him in his chest, making it hard for him to breathe…”
Predictably, the local bar association has supported its members, and lawyers at the district court have gone on strike. But a senior police official has taken a tougher stance than the judge by writing to the higher judiciary, requesting that the licences of the violent lawyers be cancelled. The letter cited the demoralisation of the police force as a result of the incident.
Indeed, this is hardly an isolated event: over the years, such disgraceful scenes have been repeated in many courtrooms. Ever since the ‘lawyers’ movement’ of 2007 for the restoration of (now mercifully) retired chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, the legal fraternity seems to feel it is above the law it is supposed to uphold.
Magistrates have been threatened, witnesses browbeaten in court, and police officers beaten up. Invariably, these rowdy lawyers have been protected by bar associations, and the police force has not been supported by either the higher judiciary or the government.
One reason is that many lawyers have political connections. Bar associations are also a power unto themselves, and lawyers can enter any number of legal writs to tie plaintiffs into knots.
And yet, despite the way society treats them, our police officials are the first line of defence against terrorists, and have suffered terrible losses in their fight against far better armed and motivated gangs of jihadists. Instead of thanking them for their sacrifices, society has only a thinly veiled contempt for them.
It is true that our cops have not always distinguished themselves because of their incompetence, brutality and venality. All too often, appointments to senior posts are made due to political considerations rather than merit, and recruitment is made on the basis of connections and bribes.
However, despite its many failings, it’s the only police force we have. So while reforming it, we should also support and defend it from the likes of the lawyers who seek to humiliate it. We have been talking of improving training and equipment for years, and yet armed cops hardly get any time or bullets to practice on firing ranges. The result is undisciplined shooting under pressure.
The list of inadequacies is long, but considering the threat from terrorism, one would have thought successive governments would have addressed these issues. Other countries with similar — or much lower — threat levels have responded by toughening up laws, and giving their police forces more powers and better equipment.
In Pakistan, each time there is yet another bloody attack, we shed crocodile tears, promise to beef up security, and then forget about it until the next atrocity. Take the near-comatose National Action Plan as a prime example: after the army knocked heads together and managed to get a consensus on a multi-pronged plan, it found that Nawaz Sharif’s government doesn’t have the stomach to do its bit.
Indeed, anywhere else, Chaudhry Nisar, our interior minister, would have been sacked long ago. Here is a man who will say anything to distract attention from the terrorist threat. He is now gunning for cricketers who allegedly indulged in match-fixing. Anything to deflect criticism of his incompetence. But irrespective of his masterly inaction, the police remain our first line of defence.
Published in Dawn, March 25th, 2017
