Experts call for modernising crime investigation techniques

Institutionalising Criminology in Pakistan conference analyses forensics, justice system, prisons & probation issues

It is about time the crime investigators do away with techniques dating back to the British Raj and adopt modern technologies, said Department of Criminology Chairman Dr Basharat Hussain.

“The colonial era criminal justice system cannot meet the present day challenges of the weakening law and order situations caused by the fallout of the so-called war on terror,” he said in his welcome address at the three-day first-ever national conference titled Institutionalising Criminology in Pakistan commenced at University of Peshawar (UoP) on Wednesday.

Department of Criminology has organised the conference at SSAQ Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology UoP. A total of 68 research papers will be presented during the three days of deliberations by eminent scholars.

Dr Husain said that his department will be able to provide quality education in the discipline of criminology, which is relatively new to Pakistan.

The graduates of the Department of Criminology will have an edge in the job market particularly as experts of forensics, prosecution, prisons and probation.

He said that Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government was sponsoring this conference as part of Rs180 million endowment for establishing country’s first ever Institute of Criminology and Forensic Studies at UoP.

Speaking as an expert on the subject, Pakistan Society of Criminology President DIG (retd) Fasihud Din deplored that criminology was not present in the training module and syllabus of police training until a few years back.

The former commandant of Police Training Centre Fasih lauded the efforts of department of Social Work and Sociology who were on the academic front for the cause of criminology through rigorous research contribution in national and international journals.

In her key note address, K-P Public Service Commission Member Dr Sarah Safdar paid rich tributes to the UoP Social Work Department founder late Prof Karam Elahi for introducing this subject to the Pakistani academics in the mid 1980s.

Research papers

Later in the afternoon, the panellist in their presentations presented their research papers. Attia Madni and Naureen Akhter from International Islamic University Islamabad (IIUI) suggested that malicious prosecutions resulting in detentions with-out conviction must be penalised by the legislature that results in overcrowded prisons and stigma for detainees. Maria Abbasi, faculty member from Bahauddin Zakaria, University explored the harassment situation faced by the educated women in the country through her study. She pointed out that most cases reported to FIA, go unpunished.

She informed the participants that mostly cyber harassers are addicted to the crime and habitual in their tendency to bully, stalk, outing and mobbing. Iram Shabbir from Sialkot University stated the conditions that helped cyber-crimes frequency go uninterrupted are involving lack of skilled cyber-crime fighters, forensic laboratories and public discourse.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 27^th, 2018.