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AS elections near, and the search for sticks to beat political opponents with reaches fever pitch, hypocrisy rises to new levels.
Consider the ongoing charges and counter-charges against police forces in Punjab, KP and Sindh. Provincial cops — and by extension, their political masters — are being accused of incompetence in recent high-profile crimes.
Shock, horror! The pretence here is that normally, we have outstanding guardians of the peace who have recently fallen flat on their faces because of political interference from the PML-N, PTI and PPP governments ruling in Punjab, KP and Sindh respectively.
Our police force was designed to protect officials, not ordinary citizens.
The reality is that our police force was designed to protect the government of the day and its high officials, and not ordinary citizens. This priority was set by our colonial rulers decades ago, and remains unchanged today. Indeed, rules and police manuals reflect this reality.
So when brutal crimes are committed against children, for example — as scores are every day of the week — cops take this as the norm, and have to be persuaded to even record these atrocities. Until the recent spate of reported rapes and murders of children in the media, they were never a big deal for senior police officers more concerned with providing security to ministers.
Despite the obvious failings of the police in all these cases, using the sickening murders of children as ammunition against rivals is surely a new low, even in our toxic brand of politics where slander is the common currency. Inevitably, the media and suo motu notices follow the scent of scandal and gore.
Editorial: Uneven performance of the police forces
When the chief justice gives seven days for the cops to solve a crime, he apparently forgets the seven decades of neglect they have suffered from. Poorly trained, paid and motivated, they put in long hours, mostly to protect the rich and the powerful. And the corruption they indulge in is a reflection of what is happening in our society. Also, as so many of them were recruited after paying bribes to politicians, they feel the need to recover their investment.
Some years ago, I walked into a Karachi SHO’s office as our house had been burgled. There, the list of the present incumbent’s predecessors had names of officers who had lasted only weeks in the job. And this is the norm, not the exception as station house officers are transferred at the drop of a hat by politicians. Given this state of insecurity, they will obviously want to please their bosses long before they help local citizens.
While the need for police reforms has been obvious for years, there is little political will in carrying them out. It suits politicians and bureaucrats to have the police force under their thumbs as an organisation that fixes its own priorities might start investigating their masters.
Fake encounters in which terror suspects or those thought to be involved in serious acts of violence are gunned down after being arrested have been happening for years. Suddenly, Naqeebullah Mehsud’s murder in such an incident has sparked protests and massive media coverage.
Of course these killings cannot be condoned, but they can be explained in Pakistan’s context of a dysfunctional judicial system where such suspects all too often walk free. Risking their lives nabbing suspected terrorists, cops must feel bitter and frustrated when they watch judges let them off either on bail, or on grounds of insufficient evidence. Often, they have gone off to commit more mayhem.
Read: Crime of extra-judicial killing
We — judges and politicians included — have all known about these extrajudicial killings, but have mostly colluded by our silence. For most of us, it has been a matter of the bad guys being taken out of circulation, a kind of needed pest control. In a brutalised society, the moral dimension has evaporated due to relentless terrorist attacks. It has taken Naqeebullah’s handsome face to shake us out of our complacency. But out of the three other victims gunned down with him, who stands out in our memory?
Talking about hypocrisy, we now hear a chorus of accusations about horse-trading in the coming Senate elections. Politicians are charging each other of this heinous crime as it has never happened before. But given their indirect nature, these elections are tailor-made for corrupt practices. Designed for an era when party discipline meant something, the contest has now degenerated into a sleazy auction. But what else is new?
We now live in a system governed by suo motu notices, rapidly shifting media focus and tweets from the ISPR. Elected governments are squeezed for space and freedom of action. But even when they were less constrained, reforms were seldom a priority as politicians failed in their duty to provide good governance.
And yet until those wielding power in our fractious country can manage to develop a consensus, we are doomed to continue on our present trajectory.
Published in Dawn, February 10th, 2018
