PUNJAB has descended into a different kind of lawlessness in recent months propelled by the state’s readiness to overlook extrajudicial killings in the name of fighting ‘serious’ crime. A damning report by HRCP reveals that at least 924 suspects were killed across the province last year following the establishment of the Crime Control Department in May. The fact that the FIA did not conduct mandatory investigations and that magisterial inquiries were not carried out into these killings lends credence to allegations that Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz’s government has adopted a “deliberate policy of staged police encounters leading to extrajudicial killings”. FIRs on such incidents across districts follow an identical narrative pattern, alleging that the suspects fired first, police acted in self-defence, and those killed were hardened criminals; it suggests what HRCP calls an “institutionalised practice”. Even the affected families are warned of further harm to deter them from pursuing legal action.

Punjab police are notorious for custodial killings. Successive administrations have usually looked the other way, never questioning this method of crime control. However, this is the first time that extrajudicial killings appear to have been “institutionalised”, evolving from sporadic police excesses to systemic practice. Even the courts, previously the only avenue for affected families to seek redress, appear unavailable this time. The government may be right in claiming that the CCD has helped control serious crime and some suspects might have been involved in heinous offences. But that is not how civilised societies function. The fight against crime should not be at the cost of due process, nor can police be allowed to play the role of investigator, judge and executioner all at once. This policy has exposed the failure of successive governments to invest in strengthening police’s investigative capacity so that cases are built on solid forensic evidence and can withstand judicial scrutiny. When prosecutions collapse for want of credible evidence, the fault often lies not with the courts but a poorly trained investigation set-up. More troubling, it reveals unwillingness to undertake the harder, slower path of institutional reform, choosing, instead, shortcuts that erode the rule of law, weaken public trust in the state and brutalise society itself. If allowed to continue, it risks tarnishing Pakistan’s global standing as a rules-based society and could jeopardise the renewal of its GSP-Plus status that underpins preferential access for exports to the EU market.

Published in Dawn, February 20th, 2026