Blocking CNICs of absconders

Courts and police believe blocking CNICs might help identify absconders and impact routine activities

The police in Sindh have apparently sought support from the federal government to place the names of over 57,000 absconders on the Exit Control List and to have their Computerised National Identity Cards (CNIC) blocked. This is both welcome and worrying.

The provincial police are making an effort to keep wanted persons from fleeing the country, but the question is: how did we ever get to the point where the number of alleged criminals roaming around on the streets of the province reached the population of a small town?

Over 22,000 of these absconders are believed to be in Karachi alone. The police have suggested that they are behind the rise in street crimes seen over the past few years. Whether or not that is true, the unfortunate fact is that the police haven’t been able to curb street crime despite, apparently, already knowing who the perpetrators are.

Then there is the suggestion of blocking CNICs, which is unlikely to affect any career criminal. While the courts and the police believe that blocking CNICs might help identify absconders and impact their routine social and economic activities, the fact of the matter is that most criminals do not use normal banking channels. Thieves are not writing each other cheques.

Crime, like an unfortunately large share of Pakistan’s business, mostly remains a cash-only business. Although some criminals might be inconvenienced, they will mostly be white-collar or less notorious criminals, rather than violent criminals who desperately need to be taken off the streets.

Those violent criminals are unlikely to turn themselves in just because they can’t get a cellphone SIM issued or a bank account opened in their names. To reduce the number of absconders, the police must take measures to reduce the ability of suspected criminals to abscond in the first place.

The courts, on the other hand, need to work on processing trials more expeditiously, in line with the recent push from the apex court, because prevention is a lot better than cure.