Licence to kill?

Promoting the culture of vigilantism would do more harm than good to peace

A long queue, mostly of men, forms outside the police headquarters in Karachi. Dressed in their best, they anxiously await their turn to get their ‘cash reward’ and fame through local media outlets. Though they belong to different age groups and ethnicities, they all share one commonality: they all claim to have killed one or more persons in ‘self-defence’. Such a scene has not yet occurred — but it could, in the near future. The IG Sindh has encouraged citizens to use their licensed weapons and has rewarded a man who shot down a robber.

Although the IG’s intentions may be ever-so-noble, the consequences of the example he set cannot be ignored. It only serves to promote vigilantism among the masses. While the right to self-defence has been guaranteed in the Pakistan Penal Code, every person who possesses a weapon must not be encouraged to use it at their own will.

Our criminal justice system is mired with problems and inefficiencies, such as lack of training and low prosecution rates as pointed out in a PILDAT report published in 2015. Loopholes would make it difficult to ascertain the true causes of killings, which could be carried out for personal vendetta and revenge.

Moreover, promoting the culture of vigilantism would do more harm than good to the peace established in the city. The HRCP has noted in its most recent report on crime statistics that incidents of target killings have decreased. To maintain this downward trend, it is necessary that law enforcement agencies enhance their capacities and adapt rather than ask citizens to help shoot down criminals.

Those responsible for law enforcement must realise that vigilante justice not only erodes the rule of law, it is also against the basic confines of law which guarantee a fair trial. Such subversion of the due process must be discouraged rather than promoted, for we have seen many incidents of mob justice and vigilantism in the past, all across Pakistan.

The police would do itself a favour if it decides to stop doling out cash rewards to acts of vigilante justice. While it cannot be denied that the law and order situation in Karachi is in need of serious improvement, it would be foolish to seek shortcuts to achieving this aim. Instead the police must rise to the challenge. Though citizens are required to play an active part and aid the police; the police must not shift their responsibilities to the citizens by granting the general populace a licence to kill.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 22^nd,  2016.