TOPIC A

PUBLIC ORDER, COURTS AND ROLE OF SECURITY AGENCIES IN PAKISTAN

What is Law and Order?

Law and Order constitutes civil laws written in the constitution, its enforcement by the law
agencies and prosecution of the offenders. Pakistan in its history has always faced this challenge,
up till now governments have formulated norms but they lack implementation. People talk about
improving law but they are first ones to break it.

Since independence Pakistan is facing Law and Order uncertainties. The strategic and
geographical location of Pakistan is also one of the reasons behind the tensions as Pakistan and
Afghanistan border is creating disturbance. Also the event of 9/11 and it’s aftermath has raised
the law and order situation.

The situation has come to head after witnessing, no day passes by when there is a suicide bomb
blast, target killing or kidnapping for ransom. Pakistan, it seems has become a haven for all the
anti-social elements from all over the world.

We are fighting the war on terror having lost lives and infrastructure. The forces, police and
civilians are being targeted every day. Forces have managed to arrest terrorists but none of them
has been sentenced. The reason they are let free is the lack of evidence.

Country’s Law and order situation arises when there is an internal insecurity due to host of
factors like, religious/sectarian extremism, ethnic cleavages, external aggression etc. All these
can exacerbate the conflict and affect the overall peaceful functioning of the society.

Terrorism and Crime are the two most important elements of law and order, due to its increase
nation’s Peace, Law and Order deteriorates. Mostly crimes are committed by economic and
poverty factors as well as social environment such as parental conflict, lack of communication,
lack of respect and responsibility, abuse and neglect of children. Whereas terrorism and tribal
activities have become routine affairs in Pakistan. North and South Waziristan have been a fertile
land for tribal activities.
Not only this but also the fight between different political parties is affecting the peace as well.
The target killing in some cities is also affecting peace like in Karachi, civilians are almost daily
dying in target killing. The current law and order situation is extremely poor, the rate of foreign
investment is reduced, even the law and order situation in Balochistan, Quetta and KPK is
pitiable alarming. Almost daily many target killing incidents are observed. Recently, in Lahore
bomb blast many people died. People of Pakistan are consistently facing security threats. A close
watch from daily life routine that shows weakness of law, if you don’t have a license or you
break any traffic rule, it is very easy to escape by just giving a small tip to the sergeant. Mostly
police reaches the crime scenes as late as possible. Prosecution gets adjourned for long time. It
takes months for small cases to finish. A student travels to his university, every single day he is
the victim to robbery or mobile snatching on gun point, why should he wish to stay in Pakistan?

Law and Order situation and crime rates are increasing in Pakistan particularly in larger cities
such as Karachi this has reached endemic proportions. Mobile snatching is a very common type
of crime that causes both economic distress and terrorize the population. Stamping on crime will
require creative and innovative use of available technologies.
There are lots of problems regarding law and order situation in Pakistan, such as terrorist attacks
creates uncertainty in stock marks and people earning from stock are getting loss due to which
whole country faces uncertain increase in commodity prices, local industries firms are unable to
sign agreements with foreign investors due to prevailing law and order situation.

Moreover, terrorism includes a drop in the economy, exports affected also, sharp fall in
government capital formation and private investment due to budgetary restrictions and increased
uncertainty also, human costs rises such as increase in mortality, health nutrition and education
standards falling plus heavy development costs due to destruction of capital and reduced
investment.

Most vulnerable to the poor economy and law and order deterioration are the impoverished
sectors of the society. Therefore it is very important to start with the most vulnerable and
deprived sector of the society when it comes to finding solutions to these challenges. Studies
indicates that present and already formulated policies do not work because of the lack of proper
identification and understanding of aims and objectives. Gender imbalances and disparities
between rural and urban also creates barriers to policy implementation and law framework.
Security apparatus are required in tribal areas like KPK in order to curb the issues of
deterioration of law and order in vulnerable areas. There is a need of capacity building of
intelligence agencies also there is a need for coordination among various agencies and law
departments.

To infer, contrary to the popular misconception, there is, in fact a sound constitutional and legal
system in Pakistan. The courts have become very much active in the past one decade. Due to
widespread risk of media exposure, corrupt police officials also think thrice before they commit
corruption.

However there is also a very negative political influence on police and judicial services and
sometimes this creates situations where law and order seems to magically disappear as far as
society bigwigs and their cronies committing crime are concerned.
There are legal remedies for this of course and the courts have taken such matters to task if only
after the complains of the public.

Pakistan’s disputes with neighboring India and Afghanistan periodically erupt in violence.
Domestic attacks involving disparate terrorist and insurgent groups, and counter-offensives by
Pakistan’s military, have killed tens of thousands of Pakistanis over a decade and forced nearly
1.5 million from their homes. Sectarian violence against minorities is fueled by a narrow vision
for Pakistan’s national identity that has been promoted by political movements and state
institutions. The inability of state institutions to reliably provide peaceful ways to resolve
competing interests has encouraged groups to see violence as a legitimate alternative. The violent
instability of Pakistan, the world’s sixth-most populous nation, poses a threat to regional and
international security. However, the country has expanded its economy and begun addressing
energy shortages and investing in infrastructure, steps that have begun to boost the economic
growth vital to improved stability.

Article 15. Freedom of movement –

Every citizen shall have the right to remain in, and, subject, to any reasonable
restriction imposed by law in the public interest, enter and move freely
throughout Pakistan and to reside and settle in any part thereof

Article 19 Freedom of speech-

Every citizen shall have the right to freedom of speech and expression, and there
shall be freedom of the press, subject to any reasonable restrictions imposed by
law in the interest of the glory of Islam or the integrity, security or defence of
Pakistan or any part thereof friendly relations with foreign States, public order,
decency or morality, or in relation to contempt of court, [commission of] or
incitement to an offence.

Derived from the subcontinent’s tradition of resistance, the dharna as a form of protest has long
been known in Pakistan. It was used quite effectively during the 1977 agitation but was generally
resorted to by disadvantaged sections of society to draw the rulers’ attention to police excesses or
denial of basic amenities.

The government accuses the dharna organisers of causing huge losses to the state, especially by
creating a situation that prevented the Chinese president from coming to Pakistan and scared
other investors away, and by diverting the administration from its normal work. While one does
not have a correct estimate of the economic losses to the state the adverse political fallout of
dharnas was quite substantial.

The container dharna reinforced the model of elite-dictated discourse. The dharna leaders posed
as messiahs, spoke down to the people from raised pulpits and presented oversimplified answers
to the country’s endemic crisis. While both Qadri and Imran Khan often correctly identified the
failures of the government and the flaws in the system as a whole, they could not guide the
people in their search for credible alternatives.

The formulas for the people’s deliverance from oppression, misrule, corruption et al were lost in
shrill rhetoric that progressively lost meaning with excessive repetition. Even the poorest student
of politics could not believe Pakistan could find salvation simply by having a new prime minister
or a new election commission. The argument that Dr Qadri or Mr Imran Khan or Molvi Khadim
could by himself steer the ship of state out of the storm amounted to pushing the people off the
path of democratic struggle for national advancement.

Of more immediate concern was the fact that the dharna aggravated the civil-military imbalance,
weakened the civilian part of the establishment, diverted attention from the military operation in
the tribal areas, disrupted the parliamentary agenda, and brought efforts to reform the foreign
policy to a standstill. These losses are much heavier than those calculated by the two speaking
members of the federal cabinet (the ministers of finance and interior).

However, the dharna also made some positive contribution to Pakistan’s politics. To begin with,
matters of serious concern to the people — electoral fraud, corruption, indifference to the rights
and interests of women, labour, peasantry, the jobless youth, policies of a client state, rulers’
extravagant lifestyle, etc, were brought into public discourse as basic issues that merited
immediate action.

Secondly, the dharna triggered a wider debate on the right to protest. While it is doubtful that
ordinary Pakistanis, like workers, peasants, political dissidents and human rights activists, will be
allowed the freedom of Islamabad’s sacred avenues that Imran Khan and Tahirul Qadri were
favoured with, the space for peaceful public protest has been enlarged. A useful debate has also
started on the rights of the people whose interests are adversely affected by the protesters or by
official measures for dealing with them.

Thirdly, the ranks of traditional protesters against bad governance and denial of basic rights,
usually underprivileged citizens, have been enriched with fresh young blood from both urban
rich and rural poor stocks. They do have the potential to serve as carriers of ideas of progress to
the masses and as communicators of the latter’s aspirations to the elite. But they need freedom
from cultism and aggressive manners, and training in sustained political work as opposed to
narrow electoral campaigning before they can qualify as agents of any meaningful change.

The crucial question is where does the dharna year leave the parties concerned?
The way the dharnas ended could not but cause some frustration at least among the active
participants. If such a well-funded and well-backed agitation did not achieve its declared
objective then the message to future change-makers is not very encouraging. This could deter
many from taking up cudgels in defence of their rights.

The government showed some signs of learning from the close shave it had. For instance, the
prime minister discovered parliament. But the government does not appear to have any patience
for learning. Parliament has again been forgotten and there is no sign of improvement or change
in the style of governance.

The military establishment played its cards well and perhaps gained more than it might have
done by pushing the government over the brink.

The judiciary sent a wholesome message to politicians to sort out their problems themselves and
if this leads to a fall in settlement of political issues through judicial verdicts it will be good for
democracy.

While the dharnas have made avoidance of electoral reform impossible the prospects for a
positive change in the political culture have not brightened. The difficulty is that the 2014
agitation appears to have been a replica of the agitation of 1969-70. The movement of 1969-70
lost its way in populist adventures and if the system survives the storms of 2014 the people will
have gained precious little.

ISSUES TO BE DISCUSSED IN GCUMUN:

1. Public Order

2. Laws for Maintaining Public Order

3. Role of Courts for Maintaining the Public Order

4. Fundamental Constitutional Rights of Protest & Movement

5. Dharna Culture

6. Responsibility of speech?
 7. Role of Security Agencies

8. Dialogue or Writ of the State?

9. Impacts

10. Way forward

WISH YOU GOOD LUCK