Trust deficit in police leading to crime upsurge in Pakistan

The National Corruption Perception Survey 2021 conducted by Transparency International Pakistan found the police the most corrupt institution in Pakistan. According to the survey, the three most important causes of corruption are weak accountability (51.9%), the greed of powerful people (29.3%) and low salaries (18.8%). As measures to reduce corruption, 40.1% of Pakistanis say an increase in/stringent punishments for corruption cases, 34.6% Pakistanis say accountability of public officers by expediting NAB’s handling of corruption cases. This renders a feather in the cap for NAB as a trustworthy department in the eyes of the general public of Pakistan. NAB is lead by Chairman Justice (r) Javed Iqbal who is known for his honesty in his entire professional career in the country while he has always recommended and encouraged unblemished professionals as top brass of NAB like Zahir Shah, Najaf Mirza, Brig. (r) Farooq Awan and others. Zahir Shah has successfully handled NAB as its DG operations and now as its deputy Chairman while Najaf Mirza is from police service known for his honesty & integrity. In fact, he should be posted back in police as IG of a strategic province to regain confidence of public in the police department. Brig (r) Farooq already enjoys public confidence due to his action and recoveries in mega scams while there is a perception in the people that he should be given further extension in service to serve the Nation.

IWACEF, conducted a field research related to the perception of people vis a vis the Punjab police @ Lahore as a test case. The basic figures at Lahore showed a 57pc increase in crime in 2021, as the Punjab capital’s crime figures crossed 200,000. The average registered crime was around 125,000 in the past few years. Though the police authorities attribute the high number of cases to their policy of free registration of First Information Reports (FIRs), yet the truth is that the police still use different tactics to delay the registration of cases or underreport crimes.
According to many victims, the police usually attempt to register a case of a petty crime when actually a robbery has been committed, to lessen the heinous nature of the crime and evade action from their high-ups over the rising number of such incidents in their areas. It is also a common perception that unreported crime is much more than what is reported to the police, because the common people believe that reporting to the police is of no use and instead would land them into trouble.
It is a fact that most people do not report to the police even if their mobile phone is snatched or for crimes like fraud, theft, violence, etc , because they know they would have to visit the police station several times without any redressal of grievance. The police would attempt to persuade them to back off from lodging of FIR and instead be happy with filing a simple application which would ultimately go missing over the months along with all the trust the person may be having in the police department. Even if a case is registered, the citizens say that there is no chance of its recovery or the arrest of the accused.
Though the Punjab Director Public Relations (DPR) is making efforts to keep the image of the department positive and also the city has an upright officer CCPO Fayyaz Dev with talented SSP Investigations Imran Kishwar and SSP Operations Capt. Mustansar Feroze yet there are many instances where the image gets tarnished. People have to go from pillar to post to lodge a case. IWACEF tried to gather data related to the variety of applications filed at the different police stations of Lahore and picked up a test case to present the various dimensions of the subject at hand. A senior citizen Mr. Naqvi aged 67 Years filed an application for cheque bouncing, misappropriation of his goods where he was made to visit the police station dozens of times over a lengthy period of 10 months. Then he filed a complaint with the CCPO upon whose action the FIR 5/22 was half heartedly lodged at PS Rangmahal but all entailing sections were not registered and the local police at junior level instead of arresting the accused, they formed a nexus with the accused and let them go Scot free. The senior citizen then has to face counter blast from the accused in terms of preparing his forged documents and misusing them in cases to harass and blackmail him to take back the lodged FIR. The senior citizen Mr. Naqvi files complaint in PS Islampura through the CCPO office (CCPO-2021-24892) but again he his made to visit the Police Station a dozen times without registration of FIR & arrest of the culprits. Further, he now starts receiving threats on his mobile from a multitude of unknown names and numbers that the culprits will burn him alive, kidnap him before he reaches the house, etc. if he does not withdraw his already registered case. Now, for this too he has no recourse but file application (NT 1/6/2022, 467) at Nawab Town police station, but the police calls him to the police station dozens of times again and use delaying and discouraging tactics so as not to lodge the complaint. Now the senior citizen Mr. Naqvi’s daughter at the city of Jhang has also started receiving threatening calls to put some sense in her father that police stations are not places of redressal of grievances and that no FIR should be lodged. The senior citizen Mr. Naqvi being resilient, to get justice from the system has again filed application at PS Satelite town. This has become a test case where many of the dimensions related to the subject are covered. It is obvious that if the police had redressed the complaint at the first instance and immediately lodged FIR and arrested the criminals while recovering the proceeds then the senior citizen would not be forced to attend various police stations for more than 100 times while the time and efforts of the department would also be saved whereas giving confidence to the public in the department leading to control in the crime rate.
It is a fact that people in Pakistan still have to face problems in lodging of cases at police stations and they have to reach offices of high-ranking police officers or even courts to lodge a criminal case. Undoubtedly, the police will have to overcome the trust deficit from the public to control rising crime.