THE nineteenth century witnessed a significant refinement of policing philosophy. Sir Robert Peel, extensively thought to be the daddy of contemporary policing, articulated ideas that proceed to information democratic police forces. His assertion that “the police are the general public, and the general public are the police” underlined the concept that police legitimacy flows from public consent relatively than coercion. Accountability, restraint, proportionality, and strict adherence to the rule of legislation had been the important safeguards towards the misuse of police energy. The evolution of policing thus mirrored the event of the state itself, from coercive authority to regulated energy, from power to legitimacy, and from unquestioned command to accountability.
Whereas this contemporary policing mannequin was taking form in England, the British launched policing establishments of their newly conquered Indian colonies, starting with Calcutta and Bombay. The rebellion of 1857, nonetheless, essentially altered British priorities. A centralized, Irish-style constabulary was established with the first goal of management and sustaining order, largely detached to public rights. Regardless of this, the organizational construction itself was constructed on ideas of command and management.
Unbiased Pakistan inherited the colonial police structure, an environment friendly law-enforcement equipment designed to regulate the inhabitants relatively than to serve it. Tragically, successive political and later navy rulers largely assumed the position of colonial masters and did not undertake significant police reform. Regardless of repeated proclamations of intent, quite a few committees and commissions, numbering practically 30, produced experiences that had been in the end unceremoniously consigned to archives.
It was solely in 2002 {that a} navy ruler, throughout an preliminary part of reformist enthusiasm, enacted a legislation supposed to rework the police from an instrument of enforcement right into a service-oriented establishment. Throughout the drafting of this legislation, it was acknowledged that police energy had expanded in an advert hoc method to deal with speedy inhabitants progress and unplanned urbanization. The consequence was an unwieldy colonial police power with huge powers that was turning into more and more tough to handle and maintain accountable.
A number of police forces have to be established inside every province beneath the present authorized framework.
The framers of the legislation accurately acknowledged the necessity for creating further police forces to make sure efficient legislation enforcement. Political concerns, nonetheless, prevented this structural reform. As an alternative, the proposed legislation tried to compensate by introducing ideas of enhanced operational autonomy to the regional commanders and heads of police within the provincial capital cities and enormous city police forces.
Regrettably, beneath sustained strain from political elites, the identical navy ruler was compelled to dilute this progressive laws. Core ideas of depoliticisation, accountability, and civilian oversight had been systematically weakened, restoring, and in some instances deepening, political interference in policing.
To deal with the rising calls for of policing an increasing inhabitants and chaotic urbanization, governments resorted to expedient however flawed options. Quite a few so-called ‘specialised’ models had been created exterior the formal police construction, full with standalone police stations and ambiguous strains of accountability. These models had been showcased as panaceas for law-and-order issues, however in actuality, they generated overlapping mandates. The consequence was the weakening of a disciplined, uniformed power skilled to function inside outlined jurisdictions and authorized limits, thereby undermining the complete legal justice system.
Specialised models ought to stay the exception relatively than the norm. Their creation should be primarily based strictly on skilled wants assessments, embedded throughout the present command and management construction. Such models should function beneath rigorous oversight and express safeguards for basic rights.
Expertise reveals that ‘specialised models,’ when allowed to perform exterior established frameworks, typically pursue narrowly outlined aims on the expense of the rule of legislation. Their extended existence fosters impunity, encourages lawlessness and violence, and dangers dehumanizing their members and turning them into ‘rogue cops.’
For significant, sustainable structural police reform, there’s a compelling case for smaller and extra manageable police jurisdictions. Right now, Punjab has a police power of roughly 224,000 personnel, Sindh 160,000, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 125,000, and Balochistan 48,000. It’s towards all ideas of environment friendly administration for armed police forces of this measurement to be positioned beneath single provincial commanders.
Makes an attempt throughout the present hierarchy to create empowered city and regional instructions failed as a result of the Police Order 2002 was by no means applied in its true spirit and was subsequently rendered ineffective by way of amendments negating accountability, oversight, autonomy and repair. In these circumstances, there isn’t any viable different however to determine a number of police forces inside every province beneath the present authorized framework, with no single power exceeding 50,000 personnel.
The Central Police Workplace ought to be reconstituted as a Provincial Police Directorate, headed by a director common drawn from the senior police management. The directorate could be answerable for province-wide coordination, coaching, standardization of apparatus and transport, and the formulation of uniform operational procedures, supported by a sturdy system of monitoring and analysis. Commanders of the newly constituted police forces should be granted assured tenures, enabling them to train lawful authority, resist unlawful exterior interference, and supply skilled, field-oriented management.
This framework would improve effectivity, transparency, and operational effectiveness, whereas progressively decreasing reliance on paramilitary forces for routine policing and emergency response. On the identical time, these police forces would stay topic to robust civilian oversight and steady skilled supervision by way of the Provincial Police Directorate.
This reorganization is achievable throughout the present provincial governance framework, with out participating within the politically delicate situation of making new provinces. It should, nonetheless, be acknowledged as an interim association. Sturdy and optimum governance can in the end be achieved solely by way of smaller, empowered, and autonomous provinces. The earlier this actuality is confronted, the higher for democratic governance and efficient policing.
The author is a former IGP Sindh.
Revealed in Daybreak, December twenty seventh, 2025
