Lahore police chief recommends army like court-martial for cops

LAHORE: Capital City Police Officer Umar Sheikh has recommended court-martial of police officers similar to the armed forces to prevent frequent misconducts that could not be addressed through the existing rules of the Police Department.

"It is submitted that the prevailing disciplinary rules of Police Department do not cater the frequent misconducts committed by the police officers, bringing bad name to the department as well as severely hampering the control over law and order situation/curbing crime in the province, including capital city Lahore,” said Sheikh in the letter reported by The News.

Lahore’s top cop told the Punjab police chief that it was “high time” to review disciplinary rules and develop a “new accountability regime” to ensure service delivery to the general public as well as better policing in the province.

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"In 2015, action was taken against 57,318 officers/officials; in 2016 against 61,422, in 2017 against 92,521; in 2018 against 82,170 and in 2019 against 61,573. Despite the fact that every year 25 to 30 per cent of the force is being made accountable, no visible improvement in the attitude and conduct has been observed and general public, media, NGOs are persistently complaining about the misconduct of police,” said Sheikh while citing the data of the last four years on the actions taken against police officers.

The CCPO claimed that an “absence” of such laws for the “accountability of police force” apart from hampering the discipline of the police force has also led to a “permanent target of human rights activists, NGOs, media, political parties and judiciary”. He also added that despite the regular departmental enquiries the “offenders” rejoin the force with all the perks and privileges.

Sheikh said that the purpose of introducing a police court-martial was to ensure that no officer could be reinstated after being dismissed due to negligence.

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“The court martial-style amendments to the existing laws are a matter of urgency for the provision and transparency in the system,” he said, adding that strict accountability is needed for the policing of police.

"As long as the most severe punishments are not given to the corrupt and immoral officials and the officers and officers who have exceeded the authority cannot be sent home, the police cannot be subordinated to the public in the true sense of the word. And so far strict action has been taken against 12 officials for distorting facts/evidence."