When it comes to dealing with the bad eggs in society, the police are meant to be at the forefront; but who watches the watchdogs who go astray?
Fortunately for the general public, the performance of the Provincial Public Safety and Police Complaints Commission (PPS & PCC) improved considerably in 2014 when it came to tackling complaints against policemen.
Although action is rarely taken against the policeman concerned, PPS & PCC Director Arif Khattak sees a ‘compromise’ with the victims as an achievement in itself. “A compromise means the grievances of the complainant have been addressed,” Khattak told The Express Tribune.
The PPS & PPC was established in August 2003 under Article 73 of the Police Order 2002, while the District Public Safety and Police Complaints Commissions (DPS & PCC) were established under Article 37.
The provincial commission has 12 members, including six independent individuals and the same number of parliamentarians. As far as the parliamentarians are concerned, four members are from the treasury and two from the opposition benches. Four of the parliamentarians are men and two are women. Similarly, there are four men and two women among the independent members.
Meanwhile, each DPS consists of three parliamentarians, the same number of independent members and three district councilmen. There are two men and one woman in each category.
In 2012, the PPS & PCC only managed to dispose of three of a total of 30 complaints received, thus only resolving 10% of the cases. The percentage dropped to 9% the following year as only five out of 56 complaints were addressed. However, 2014 has seen a sharp increase in the resolution of cases as 63 out of the 83 complaints have been addressed. That translates into 76% of the cases being resolved.
Meanwhile, the resolution rate of the DPS & PCC was 64% with 95 of the total 147 complaints disposed of.
Swat district had the highest number of complaints registered against police officers. From a total of 43, 22 complaints were disposed of and 21 cases are pending. Peshawar district stood second with 24 complaints, of which 19 were resolved. Abbottabad ranks third with 18 complaints of which 16 were disposed of.
However, all that glitters is not gold. The District Public Safety Commission is not fully functional as members, procedures and funds are yet to be notified despite the passage of a decade.
Most people are also unaware that the commission exists.
“We have forwarded a request to the CM’s Secretariat to nominate parliamentarians as members,” says Arif. He adds the aim of the commission is to reduce the load on courts and provide the general public with a convenient platform to register complaints against policemen.
He adds that recently, Secretary Home Akhtar Ali Shah introduced a monitoring and data collection system that will improve performance on the district level. He said the shortage of officers in districts has also been addressed and the home department was approached to establish public safety funds under Article 169 of the Police Order 2002.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 4th, 2014.
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