**Two deadly terrorist attacks on police stations in Dera Ismail Khan and Multan have underlined the need to protect and strengthen the institution that is perhaps the most maligned in the country and yet holds the key to steering us out of the quicksand of terrorism.
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Witnessing Pakistan’s police facing terrorists is an awe-inspiring scene, much like the spectacle of tribal warriors, armed with spears and swords, pitched against a colonial army equipped with the disastrous force of the gun powder. Except for their AK-47s and some armoured personnel carrier, our police remain a 19the century institution – in its organisation, its training and its socio-political outlook.
**“Pakistan’s police are poorly paid, poorly trained and widely feared and distrusted by ordinary Pakistanis. It has long been an instrument of political harassment, electoral manipulation, and graft during military and civilian regimes,” notes Stephen P Cohen, a leading expert on Pakistan’s security affairs.
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Over the past six decades since independence, **police have earned a bad name for itself. Corruption has proliferated and permeated in the police services and torture has been institutionalised as the primary method of criminal investigation. While Pakistani state has shown its capacity to create clean and efficient institutions through establishing the Motorway Police, successive governments have shunned any serious efforts to reform the police. Ironically, the only serious effort at reform was made through the Police Order 2002 during the rule of a military dictator, though it remained largely un-implemented even during Musharraf’s period and has since been put on the backburner by all provincial government, creating legal confusion over the police structure in the country.
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As areas occupied by the terrorists are liberated by the army and insurgency takes the form of urban terrorism, the responsibility of fighting terrorism is shifting increasingly to the shoulders of police, an institution that is ill prepared for the job. The Pakistani government is reluctant to realise that in a democracy the main burden of containing and defeating terrorism is borne by the police services. Experts contend that the counter measures appropriate for the police in fighting terrorism are closely analogous to those required for combating other serious crimes of violence. **However, in order to effectively undertake counter-terrorism, police require a range of resources and specialised knowledge that is often beyond the scope and resources of criminal investigation departments.
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Contrary to the impression created by the US euphemism of the war on terror
, the anti-terrorist effort is not war, particularly in a situation of home grown terrorism where terrorist do not occupy any territory. Terrorism refers to the use of illegitimate means for political or ideological purposes. It involves violent tactics aimed at civilians on a relatively massive scale, much like in the cases of war. However, terrorism is very different from warfare as it exists outside, and purposely operates against, the principles of war. The enemy is often so well hidden within the society that a traditional army finds it hard to detect and ferret it out and cannot fully use it capabilities to fight a war.
Terrorism makes more sense from a criminological viewpoint that conceptually approaches it in terms of crime or deviance and social control. Deviance is a sociological term that is defied as failure to conform to culturally reinforced norms. Thus all crimes are different forms of deviance. This definition also supports the assertion of Pashtun intellectuals that Taliban do not represent the Pashtun culture and are in fact in violation of all norms of Pashtun culture and Pashtun code of honour – Pushtunwali. Social control, on the other hand, denotes control of individual behaviour by society. Social control may range from ridiculing a deviant person to imprisonment and event capital punishment through the process of law. Counter-terrorism can be criminologically analysed as a matter of social control. The most formal component of social control is represented by the criminal justice system, including its agents and organisations, such as the police.
**In order for police to be an effective mechanism social control, it needs to be more effective, better trained, well equipped, free from political influence and corruption and most importantly law abiding. The process of police reforms must be taken out of the cold storage and put on the front burner. Police has received a meagre share from the billions of dollars spent on the so called war on terror. However, it’s about time that the police’s genuine needs are met immediately.
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It appears that different forces, despite making gigantic sacrifices, lack effective coordination. So far the Interior Minister, Rehman Malik, has worked as National Coordinator, linking different civil armed forces and police fighting terrorism. An effective and institutional mechanism of coordination supported by cutting edge means of Information **Technology is needed to replace this whimsical and personalised style of coordination. A lion’s share of the counter terrorism expertise and resources is held by the ISI and armed forces. The military needs to share this expertise and resources with the police to relieve itself of some burden of counter terrorism efforts, particularly in urban settings. Pakistan needs to create a more effective nationwide capability of police response that can be called upon in the event of a terrorist attack anywhere in the country.
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We must realise that if the police crumble in front of terrorists, the whole society can devolve in complete anarchy. While we try to make the police accountable for its misdeeds, we must recognise, respect and salute those from the police services who are sacrificing their lives in the line of duty.
*Zaigham Khan is a journalist and policy analyst. He heads Civic Action Resources, an Islamabad based development consultancy.
http://www.dawn.com/2011/06/28/police-under-attack.html
so true … we are quick to blame them and say all bura bhala … !!! but whnever something went wrong .. they are the ones who are being attacked/killed!
just today three policemen were killed by these animals in northwest Pakistan!!! …
yes, they are corrupt … but if there are 3 corrupt police officers … thn there is always one who is sincere with his motherland!
we are going through such tough times … yet, they stood by us!! … at times army tends to always ignore them and not share information with them (like during PNS MEHRAN incident, police was totally overlooked and ignored) … if they think they are not efficient .. then provide them with proper training and equipments!
govt needs to be hold accountable for not providing them with proper tools … they should keep in mind tht without police they will not be succeded in fighting against these animals!!! police deserves the respect and honor just like army does!!! esp keeping in mind tht these guys are not even being paid enough!
hats off to our police officers … for standing by us during this hard time!! :)*