Improving law enforcement

Law-enforcement agencies should focus on improving investigation & gathering evidence which can stand court scrutiny.

It has never been in doubt that law-enforcement agencies battling the on-again, off-again mayhem in Karachi are grossly understaffed. The fact that target killers remain on the prowl to ambush the police is said to have downed the morale of the force. No surprises then that their response to the myriad law and order challenges often remains woefully inadequate. The recent incidents in the city’s troubled neighbourhood of Lyari only go to illustrate the diminished effectiveness of the police and paramilitary Rangers.



When gangsters ran amok at Jhat Pat Market early this week and killed innocent people with abandon, the twin forces appeared to have vanished into thin air. A pall of gloom descended on the city as a result of the unprecedented bloodletting and impelled Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to rush to the metropolis and hold a meeting for stock-taking. One of the points of his visit was his announcement to lift the ban on recruitment of civil and armed forces. There indeed is a need for hiring in law-enforcement agencies. But this process must be transparent and merit based, as the prime minister himself was apt to emphasise. Instances of political meddling in recruitment to law-enforcement agencies have been aplenty in the past which, in large part, resulted in the politicisation of the forces. At the same time we need to take stock of the thousands of police personnel deployed on VIP duty. Maybe the PM should set an example and reduce his security detail.

Also of significance was the declaration that the Karachi operation will continue till peace is restored to the metropolis. While this operation has drawn flak from different quarters, one cannot ignore the figures presented by a top cop to the Supreme Court recently. According to Additional Inspector General Karachi Shahid Hayat, a 56 per cent decrease in target killings in the city was recorded during the operation. To all intents and purposes, this appears an improvement. The law-enforcement agencies should focus on improving investigation and gathering evidence which can stand the court’s scrutiny. This is crucial if the suspects arrested during the operation are to be prosecuted successfully.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 17^th, 2014.

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