THE Punjab government is working on a plan to simplify the process of registering a ‘genuine’ First Information Report. The larger purpose of this effort is to discourage registration of false complaints and prevent the harassment of innocent people during investigation and trial.

The initiators of these reforms have suggested that the report of a crime filed electronically, by telephone, or in person should be treated as an FIR.

Police investigators will be required to probe the complaints and send only those cases for trial where there is adequate evidence against a suspect. No suspect will be arrested unless the police can prove his or her involvement in the reported crime. Prosecutors will be authorised to drop cases that are false.

Read: FIR ‘reform’ on Punjab govt radar screen

The question is: are FIR reforms alone sufficient to make the country’s rotten criminal justice system deliver?

In Pakistan, it seems the entire criminal justice system hinges on what should not be treated as more than a ‘report of information’ about the commission of a crime or the occurrence of an incident.

Since our police, prosecutors and judges rely so much on the contents of this document, many policymakers think that they can revamp the country’s criminal justice system and provide ‘swift justice’ to the people through merely simplifying the FIR registration mechanism.

Indeed, it is crucial to reform the process of FIR registration to give confidence to the people so that they can approach the police with their complaints without any fear.

But its significance in criminal investigation and in court trials should not be overstated. Thus, the policymakers in Punjab should look at their planned FIR reforms only as a first step towards a total overhaul of the criminal justice system and not as an end in itself.

The changes in the FIR registration process will not work unless they are followed by wider police reforms, and substantial improvements in crime investigation and court trial procedures.

Also, prosecutors and judges will have to stop overemphasising the FIR’s contents during the trial process.

Published in Dawn, November 11th , 2014