Brief History

In the aftermath of the War of Independence of 1857, which seriously challenged British rule over the subcontinent, the Police Commission of 1860 recommended the abolition of the Military Arm of the Police; the appointment of an Inspector General of Police in the Province; and the placement of police in a district under the District Superintendent with general control wielded by the District Magistrate. Based on the recommendations of the Commission the Government of India submitted a bill that was passed into the Police Act of 1861. It has been noted that the aim of the law was to keep “the natives on a tight leash” and that the police was not organized as a “politically neutral outfit for fair and just enforcement of law”.

The overall organization of the police forces remained much the same after the independence of Pakistan in 1947. Except for the centrally administered and tribal territories, basic law and order responsibilities have been carried out by the four provincial governments, who were also entitled to make rules under the Police Act, 1861. The police in the various provinces and regions are established as separate establishments without any nationwide integration of these policing bodies.

The Police Act, 1861

The Police Act, 1861 (the “Act”) remained applicable in Pakistan as a central law after the issuance of the Pakistan (Adaptation of Existing Pakistan Laws) Order dated 14 August 1947 which allowed the then existing laws of British India to remain applicable in Pakistan with necessary modifications. The Act was replaced with the centrally promulgated Police Order, 2002 (the “Order”) which came into effect on 14 August 2002. However, it should be noted that notwithstanding the introduction of the Order, no new rules for the police were ever implemented.

The Order, like its predecessor, places the superintendence of provincial police establishments in the hands of provincial governments. Since law-and-order issues are better dealt with at the local level, policing is therefore a provincial responsibility. There is a general understanding and consensus that police legislation is a provincial subject, and it is at the provincial level that legislation on police needs to be passed.

Pakistan Police Reforms

Since policing in independent Pakistan has reflected the same deficiencies and flaws of policing as during colonial rule, a number of reform efforts have been undertaken to improve the performance of law enforcement agencies:

1948	Passage of Bill to introduce a Metropolitan System of Policing in Karachi
1951	Recommendations of Sir Oliver Gilbert Grace, IG Police, NWFP
1961	Police Commission headed by Mr. Justice J.B. Constantine
1962	Pay & Services Reorganization Committee (Justice Cornelius)
1970	Police Commission headed by Major General A.O. Mitha
1976	Police Station Enquiry Committee headed by M.A.K. Chaudhry, IG Police Law and Order Sub-Committee headed by Ch. Fazal Haque Police Reforms Committee headed by Rafi Raza
1981	Orakzai Committee on Police Welfare, Promotion and Seniority Rules
1982	Cabinet Committee on the Emoluments of SHOs
1983	Cabinet Committee on Determining the Status of SHOs Establishment of the Office of Wafaqi Mohtasib (Ombudsman) as a non-political Institution to enforce administrative accountability Sahibzada Rauf Ali Committee
1985	The Police Committee headed by Mr. Aslam Hayat
1987	Report of the two-member delegation’s visit to Bangladesh and India
1989	Report of the seven-member delegation’s visit to Bangladesh and India
1990	Police Reforms Implementation Committee – M.A.K. Chaudhary
1995	Report of the UN Mission on Organized Crime in Pakistan
1996	Report of the Japanese Police Delegation on the Police System in Pakistan
1997	Committee on Police Reforms under the Chairmanship of Interior Minister
1998	Report of the Good Governance Group on Police Reforms: Committee Vision
1999	Punjab Police established a Range Police Complaint Authority to hear complaints against police officials considering inadequate or delayed investigations, and non-registration of first information reports (FIRs). (Information on the status of the Range Police Complaint Authority as of April 2004, could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate.)
2000	Report of the Focal Group on Police Reforms: NRB Draft 2000
2001	The Office of the District Magistrate was abolished as part of an effort to implement police accountability. Notwithstanding these many attempts at reform, the legislative approach to better policing did not change much until the Police Order, 2002 was promulgated by General Pervez Musharraf and given protection under the Constitution (Seventeenth Amendment) Act, 2003. The Police Order, 2002 is based on the recommendations made by the Focal Group on Police Reforms in 2000.
2002	The District Magistrates lost their powers of general control over the district Police under the Police Order, 2002. The Order sought to provide the police with operational autonomy and freedom from illegitimate political interference. The Order also envisaged greater accountability of the police to external institutions. The budget of the police has to get approval from the provincial Home and Finance departments. Under the Order each provincial capital is referred to as a Capital City, which has Capital City Police Officer (CCPO), recruited from among the officers normally the rank of Additional IG. Then each city district has a City Police Officer (CPO), recruited from officers at least of the DIG rank. While the terminology has changed slightly under the Order, the structure of policing has largely remained the same. However, subsequent amendments made to the Order diluted the operational autonomy of the police and rendered the external bodies ineffective and dependent on the government of the day. In addition, implementation of the Order has been challenging because provincial governments were not properly consulted during its formulation and civil bureaucracies never accepted the new dispensation. Although police organizations throughout the country continue to adhere to the Police Order, 2002, some provincial governments are seriously considering amending it.
2009	In 2009, the then President said that with the help of the Friends of Democratic Pakistan, the federal government would assist in raising 20,000 additional police personnel in each province with special equipment and pay packages. However, notwithstanding that some of these pronouncements have not materialized because of financial constraints, slow progress has been achieved in a few instances.
2011	The Baluchistan Assembly passed the Baluchistan Police Act 2011, giving more powers to administration and district magistrates in regulating the Baluchistan. The new act empowers the home secretary to make postings and transfers on recommendations of the Chief Minister and Services and General Administration Department. It applies to all areas of Baluchistan.
2017	The KP Government also passed its Police Act 2017 by repealing the Police Order 2002. The new Police Act made the Inspector General omnipotent by empowering him to make postings and transfers up to the ranks of Additional Inspector General. In fact, some observers believe that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police Department has been made apolitical, accountable, and independent to perform the law maintenance duties without any considerable political interference.
2019	The Sindh Police Act had been pending with the political hierarchy of Sindh since 2015. It was approved in May 2019.

Federal Government

It is pertinent to mention that the amended Police Acts are being implemented in Punjab, Baluchistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. However, Islamabad Police, Gilgit Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir are still being managed under the Police Act of 1861.

Revamping Police Training: Recently some progressive changes have been witnessed in police training with the introduction of new curricula, revision of the old one and bringing changes in both methodology and content.

Islamabad Constabulary: In view of the pressing needs of Islamabad Police for security duties it was decided to raise an additional force of 10,000 men for the Islamabad Constabulary. The project is under preparation.

Overview of Provincial Developments in Reforming Police and Legislation

The provincial governments, who have primary responsibility in maintaining law and order, have also undertaken modernization efforts. When the Prime Minister of Pakistan announced in early 2009 that the salaries of police would be raised, Punjab acted on the advice, but other provinces dithered.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

• In May 2008, the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa unveiled a 4 billion USD plan to improve, among other things, police performance in the province.
• A significant portion of the plan amount may be spent on the provincial police infrastructure.
• The plan includes increasing the numbers of provincial police personnel by 8,000 and the Frontier Constabulary by 6,000.
• It envisages the establishment of a new police wing named the Special Police Force (SPF) of 7,500 well trained and properly equipped personnel that will focus exclusively on fighting terrorism and militancy.
• The plan also calls for closer coordination between various law enforcement agencies and a mechanism for institutional support among the police, the Frontier Constabulary, the Frontier Corps, and the army.
• In order to cope with the emerging law and order challenges, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has decided to sanction 10,000 additional police postings for which both the federal and provincial government will jointly provide funding.

Sindh

• The Sindh government announced in 2008 that it would immediately recruit 8,500 personnel and it pledged to recruit an additional 10,000 every year until the number of personnel in the force is sufficient to meet the province’s needs. However, development in this respect is reflected neither in the 2009-2010 budget statement for the Sindh Police, nor is it reflected through the sanctioned strength for the provincial force.
• Sindh has established a much-needed forensic training school that will impart training in crime scene management, physical evidence analysis, basic detection, and fingerprint proficiency.
• The Crime Investigation Department of Sindh Police has recently established a “Digital Computer Forensic Lab” that can assist in anti-terror investigations by recovering lost and deleted electronic files, deleted browsing history, deleted email, or data from damaged devices.
• The Sindh government in accordance with a request from the federal government has decided to raise an additional force of 15,000 in the form of the Sindh Constabulary, for which planning is under way.

Punjab

• In September 2008, the Punjab Chief Minister ordered the establishment of a state-of-the-art DNA lab in Lahore for which staff would get training from abroad. Such labs, it was decided, would be established in other divisions of the province as well.
• The Punjab government has further decided to establish the Forensic Science Agency which will oversee the Chemical Examiner, Forensic Science Lab, Fingerprint Bureau, and the DNA Testing Lab. The Forensic Science Agency and the DNA lab were expected to start functioning in 2010.

Baluchistan:

• The province of Baluchistan, with the passage of the Baluchistan Levies Force Act, 2010, has revived the use of the Baluchistan Levies – a policing arrangement that has traditionally consisted of locals controlled by the Tribal Sardars. In the past, the security establishment often viewed the Levies as a private army for the Sardars. It was therefore decided to gradually disband the force during the Musharraf regime.
• However, the local elites and political leadership resented this and thus the Levies have been resurrected.
• Baluchistan will remain divided into the Areas (where the police have jurisdiction) and Areas (where the Levies force will have jurisdiction).
• As a consequence of the passage of the Baluchistan Levies Force Act, a greater part of Baluchistan will come under the jurisdiction of the Levies Force. Thus, the operations of the Baluchistan police will largely be confined to urban areas.

5. Gilgit-Baltistan

• The Prime Minister of Pakistan has approved a plan for the reorganization of the Gilgit-Baltistan Police.
• This plan would seek to create 5,000 new positions in the police force, establish a forensics laboratory, upgrade the training school, create new branches in the police structure, upgrade the pay package to make it on par with the Islamabad Police, and upgrade the Shohada (Martyrs) package to make it on par with the Punjab Police.
• The total cost of this modernization plan is more than Rs. 2 billion.

The matter is under consideration with the federal government for notification and provision of funds.