May 19, 2002

AZHAR Hassan Nadeem is a police officer as well as a trained criminologist. He also holds a doctorate in economics from the university of Punjab. With these qualifications it is not surprising that he should venture to relate lawlessness with the economy. In a vague way we are all aware that when crime increases and neither life nor property is safe, businessmen do not invest their money in the country. However, this needed quantification and the author’s book is a step towards doing that.

Beginning with a general overview of issues in lawlessness and development, the book looks at socio-economic development in Pakistan and crime with special reference to the period between 1969 to 1996, the nature of violent crime with the focus on political crime and the history of crime which also covers the nature and magnitude of crimes in the last fifty years. Describing the impact of crime on the economy as a whole, the author describes a cost-effective community policing model, including a unique experiment in policing conducted by himself in Gujranwala.

Whereas the total number of cases registered in 1947 were 73,105, the total reported crime in 1999 was 4,08,760. Even though the population in 1947 was 30 million and now it is 130 million plus, this increase does not correspond with the increase in crime. The fact stares us in the face: Pakistan is becoming an increasingly criminalized society.

War, instability, political turmoil and crime affect the economy. Thus the GDP growth was highest (6.8 per cent) upto 1968 because the country was stable. The 1965 war did have, a negative impact. However, the instability of the 1970s brought it down to 4.8. After this, from 1980 to 1986 it again picked up (6.4) because there was stability but after that it has been low and unstable. Similarly unemployment seems to increase when there is political instability. Besides giving this relationship between these two variables (political instability and economy) the author has also created a composite index of the law and order situation. Unfortunately, it is expressed in rather technical terms and defies immediate and easy comprehension.

Political violence when it strikes, especially in Karachi, imposes a high cost. Stocks, national savings, Karachi Port Trust and insurance suffer and this the author has established by calculating the cost of strikes and other forms of political violence in the city. The figures he comes up with are really sobering — especially when one finds that Karachi is again sliding towards the same pattern of violence which had once plagued it in the late eighties and early nineties of the last century.

What can be done to make policing more effective? The author gives a case-study of Gujranwala where he had worked with the local community to make policing effective. In this the author tells us how the police officers had elicited the views of the locals before going in for anti-crime activities. Moreover, he narrates incidents of the bravery of individual police officials in various situations including floods.

The author’s suggestions that the local community and the Panchayat system should be revived are very well taken. However, in my view the Gujranwala experiment was based more on the personality of the author than anything else. It would not have met with success had it been tried by somebody else. What one needs is a foolproof system which should run no matter who controls it. For this the changes have to be radical and they must touch the very system of power distribution in the country.

The fact is that the power distribution in the urban as well as the rural areas encourages crime. The tribe and biradari units give rise to local power-brokers who do not allow the police to function except as partners in crime. In the cities the role of the bureaucracy, the military and other powerful power-brokers has a direct bearing on crime control.

There is also the police sub-culture about which we learn from the author that many members of the police force are criminals. He does mention how the police extracts information from people but he does not tell us that this phenomenon too is class-based, power-based and differs from place to place.

Another problem is that the author does not refer to the overall political and administrative pattern which has caused both instability and criminalization. This should have been mentioned in some detail to understand how some of the most heinous crimes, such as sectarian murder, has been condoned by agencies of the state itself. The book actually appears to absolve the state and its most powerful components which does not help in explaining crime.

Another problem with the book is its lack of readability. This phenomenon is common to almost every study that is theoretical nature. It is, of course, necessary to quote figures to establish a relationship between two or more variables but it does appear to me that some of the more abstruse formulas and symbolic devices need not have been included in the main text. Moreover, the charts could have been simplified further.

Essentially, the book reads like a doctoral thesis which has not been edited for the general public to make it easy reading. This is not at all easy as I myself, frustrated with my own unreadable books, must be the first to confess. However, the effort to make them readable should be made. Above all, there are really two disparate books: first, on the impact of crime on economy; second, on improving policing. The two parts do not mesh together and, in my opinion, the second can be developed by the author into a separate book.

These faults, however, do not detract from the significance of the study as being one of its kind in Pakistan which probes deeply and precisely into human suffering due to lawlessness. The author has worked very hard to collect figures and other information to determine the correlation between crime and economy. This is a great contribution, indeed, and one for which Dr Azhar Nadeem should be thanked.

 

Pakistan: the political economy of lawlessness

By Azhar Hassan Nadeem

Oxford University Press, 5 Bangalore Town, Sharae Faisal, Karachi-75350 Tel: 021-4529025.

Email: ouppak@theoffice.net

ISBN 0-19-579621-7 375pp. Rs495

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window)