49

What law and order needs
After Independence in 1947, the law and order was not given the priority that it had during the British raj. The British administration did not neglect health care, education, railways, canals, communications, etc. but their first priority always remained the law and order. The priority was reflected in the attention and resources devoted to it. The people appreciated it and many still talk about it nostalgically.
Independence did not mean that all the good things done by the colo­nialists should be undone. The successive governments, however, continued to do so in case of law and order, neglecting their basic duty to the people. The budget for law and order and criminal justice administration continued to be reduced over the years. The police budget for the Punjab in 1947 was 11% of the total budget. It was brought down drastically in the very next year. It in­creased very slowly and has been hovering around 5% in recent years. (Details are in the chapter, “Some facts and figures.”)
Perhaps the rulers thought that, in view of the extremely scarce re­sources and the huge burdens of the post-Independence problems, they should save as much as they could. The expenditure on law and order appeared to them to be not absolutely essential. The thinking could be justified for the time being but, unfortunately, it continued in the successive years even after the situation had stabilized and the functioning of the government had re­turned to normal. Though the annual expenditure of the Punjab government continued to increase over the years, the ratio allocated to law and order re­mained more or less static. On the other hand, the population and its needs for security continued to increase.
The courts have been short of judges, magistrates, staff, equipment, even stationery. According to an estimate, about Rs 1000 million are col­lected annually in the Punjab from court fees and other judicial charges but only one-fourth of the amount is spent on the courts. If the budget of the courts is separated from the general budget and the entire revenue is placed at the disposal of the High Court for spending on new courts and improving the conditions of the present ones, there will be a tremendous improvement in the judicial system. Not only the huge backlog of pending cases in all courts can be eliminated but delays in future can also be avoided.
Law and order cannot be maintained in thin air. The police must have a physical presence wherever it is needed. It is, therefore, elementary that it requires manpower, buildings, arms and ammunition, equipment, communi­cations and many other essentials in proportion to its obligations to the people and their increasing requirements. For those not familiar with the needs of the police, particularly the bureaucrats who control the purse strings, it will be helpful to briefly review the main requirements.
The ruling elite and the intellectuals must realize the importance of in­ternal social peace without which societies perish more quickly than from ex­ternal aggression. In fact, external threats invigorate a society while internal disorder destroys it. It is of paramount importance that the society and the government assign this aspect its due priority and allocate adequate resources.
Buildings. In spite of a phenomenal rise in the requirements of the con­tinuously increasing population, funds were never provided for the additional needs of the courts and the police. Very few new buildings have come up while the old buildings have not been repaired. Out of the 592 police stations in the Punjab, only 188 are in proper buildings! It is pitiable to see the po­licemen living and working in tents in sun, rain and cold. Just one cracker is enough to immobilize them and prevent them from pursuing fleeing criminals. The barrack and residential accommodation for the constabulary is not only miserably inadequate but whatever is available is also in the most dilapidated condition. It is mostly in a much worse condition than the accommodation available to prisoners condemned to death! On the other hand, the senior of­ficers, through gross misuse of public funds, furnish their offices like suites of posh hotels. The attitude is simply woeful, producing despondency and unrest among the lower ranks.
The condition of lower court buildings is similar to that of police sta­tions. In most cases, new court buildings have not been constructed nor the present ones expanded in spite of tremendous increase in population and the number of pending cases. Most are dilapidated. In most cases the space is grossly inadequate even for minimum court requirements.
Arms and ammunition. It may not be intentional but the fact is that the police has been practically being disarmed over the years. While Kalash­nikov has become a standard weapon for criminals, most of the policemen are still saddled with .303 Enfield rifles of the early part of this century. Revolv­ers and pistols are also of the same vintage. Most of these weapons just do not work. Then a policeman is allowed to fire just a few bullets to practice and that is all the training that he will get during his entire service. With the ex­pired and rusting ammunition, a policeman, when he opens fire, is more likely to injure himself than the fleeing criminal. A few modern weapons that are displayed in Lahore and other major cities cover up the deplorable condition at most places. The ill-armed policemen are absolutely no match to the well-armed criminals and, obviously, cannot overpower them and make an arrest. An ill-armed policeman is as effective as a scarecrow.
Insufficient manpower. To meet the basic needs, a policeman is re­quired for every 400 of population according to international standards. As a result of constant “economy” in the police budget, the ratio has dropped to one for well over 1000. There is just no way to make do with inadequate manpower because the police has to be physically present to do its job, whether it is watch and ward or investigation. If it is not possible to provide basic education and health to increasing popu­lation without more teachers and doctors, how crime can be controlled with­out extra policemen? If addi­tional funds can me made available for education and health, why not for po­licing?
Similarly, the number of judges at all levels is insufficient. As a result, the number of pending cases goes on increasing, with consequent delays in judgments. Justice delayed is obviously justice denied.
Office requirements. Those who talk of the need for a modern police and judicial procedures do not know that our police stations and courts do not have even the most essential items. The furniture is never enough and what­ever is available is in a very bad shape. If you see a new chair, it is almost always due to the personal resourcefulness of the man sitting in it. There is just no budget for stationery. It is not surprising that a thana muharrir (who writes reports in a police station) may ask a complainant to bring paper and pencil and a lower court judge may request the defence lawyer to do the same for writing court proceedings. Those who talk of computers, cameras, tape recorders, copiers, investigation kits and other modern equipment do not bother to know that even manual typewriters, if available, are decades old and barely working.
Transport. Compared to the fast-moving criminals in powerful vehi­cles of latest models, the minions of law are seen in worn-out, rickety and slow-moving museum pieces, chasing shadows and evading realities. Why should a criminal worry about being caught? He can do his job in good time and leisurely. The cynical news reporters and the self-conceited rulers are al­ways quick to complain when the police does not reach a spot in time. But they fail to realize that the policemen just do not have adequate transport to meet their expectations. If a police station has a single dilapidated jeep, over 10 years old and maintained by the Station House Officer out of his own pocket, how does one expect chases like those seen in foreign television seri­als?
In 1970, a protest march reached the residence of Gen. Tikka Khan, the Martial Law Administrator. In a rage, he wanted to know why the police did not reach in time to disperse the agitators. As the liaison officer, I was asked to explain “the gross negligence of the police.” My reply was simple. The policemen had to go from the Civil Lines police station, near the Assembly chambers, all the way to the cantonment area but they had no transport readily available. If they had commandeered a public bus or truck, they would have been hauled up by the martial law authorities for “gross misuse of their authority.” So the annoyed general should have been satisfied that the po­licemen finally did manage to reach his residence and ensure that its tranquility was disturbed no more.
Communications. Telephone has always been recognized as abso­lutely essential for police operations and yet all police stations and other field offices still do not have it. Even where available, there is never enough budget to meet the bills. As a result, either phones are disconnected or the SHO has to pay the bills on his own. Similarly, wireless sets are also not available to all police stations and field officers. Funds are often insufficient even to replace the ob­solete sets, not to speak of buying new ones. Fax ma­chines and computers are obviously only on the wish list of all those who need them. More on the sub­ject in the chapter, “Towards modernization – and back.”
Crime records. Crimes are investigated and prevented through skills, not by coercion. The crime records is the most effective instrument for keep­ing crime under control. If the records are not there or are maintained in a haphazard manner, the discriminatory misuse of powers becomes common, leading to oppression and injustice. So good policing always needs a sys­tematic and operationally useful system of records. In our police stations, there is inadequate collection of the finger prints of suspects and criminals and insufficient cataloging and categorization of criminals, both in custody or wanted. There are also no aids and kits for recording special gait and voice traits, identity marks, photographs, etc. Personal failings and inefficiency are, no doubt, there but there cannot be any improvement if the wherewithal re­quired for the purpose is not available. And it does not cost a fortune. More on the subject in the chapter, “Restoring crime records.”
Training. The facilities for training in policing skills are woeful. There are neither enough training institutions nor the necessary resources are pro­vided. The training in firearms is grossly deficient for there are neither enough arms nor ammunition. The investigation skills cannot be taught prop­erly as the required equipment and facilities are not available. Merely parad­ing and teaching the law does not go very far. Thus, the training institutions are churning out only the most servile and subservient robots instead of skill­ful, professional and intelligent officers of law.
Crime intelligence. Police and criminals keep their eyes on each other. It is the clash of their intelligence that determines the outcome. If the police is more successful, the criminal goes underground. If it falters, the criminal dominates the scene.
The flow of crime intelligence to police dried up after the collapse in early 1950s of the public support system of crime intelligence (like zaildars, nambardars and chowkidars in villages) and later due to the alienation of the people under dictatorial regimes. It was thus deprived of the most important weapon for its fight against crime. Due to lack of funds, the police could not fill the vacuum through its own professional intelligence, which costs much more than intelligence through social contacts and influence. Both types of intelligence were done away with, one for lack of vision, the other for lack of funds.
Operational intelligence. Similar is the story of operational intelligence, which is available in small quantity and that too in a disjointed and disorgan­ized manner. The casual and on-the-spot intelligence cannot be utilized fully for lack of effective and timely communication. The report of the incidence in a remote area reaches the police too late. Before it is converted into opera­tional information, the criminal reaches his haven. Even in sprawling cities, the criminal has outpaced the police. The police has poor capability to re­spond to a distress call in time for lack of timely communications, lack of transport and poorly equipped manpower. All the police can do is to come out in strength at some of the road crossings to show its presence. But it is blind­folded, so to speak, as it does not have the slightest idea what it should do. (Blind dogs running after fleeing deers, to quote a Punjabi saying.) Its nakabandi and checking is nothing more than harassment to ordinary citi­zens.
Prosecution. The supporting services and branches of the police suf­fered the worst from the misplaced bouts of economy. The Prosecution Branch failed to attract qualified law graduates due to very poor salaries. In­stead of enhancing their pay scales, the branch was attached with the Law Department for better salaries. Why not the same pay raise within the police? Because the police in general was not to be paid better. In the process, the command and control on prosecution by those responsible for law and order was completely lost. The bridge between the police and courts collapsed and the control on crime through prosecution was loosened.
The control on prosecution was then replaced by persecution by brute force, first of police, then of even army, little realizing that legal prosecution and court verdicts are the only effective methods of crime control. Mere ar­rest without follow-up in courts can only bring repression. The courts, whether civil or military, should not be expected to punish criminals through stiff sentences in the absence of sufficient evidence. Any short-cuts for short term objectives, however noble, ultimately lead to tyranny and inequity, re­sult­ing in disorder, not peace. The well-integrated and effective system of criminal justice has been destroyed more often for economy and sometimes for unrealistic and romantic objective of speedy justice.
Traffic branch. The traffic branch, in spite of the phenomenal increase in the number of vehicles and the hazards on the roads, remains untrained, un­derstaffed and unskilled. The whimsical rulers, always in indecent hurry, have not been able to decide on the nature of its organization, command and control. They oscillate from the commands of national level to the operational controls of local bodies and end up deciding nothing as it will cost some money. Rather than spending money on such uninspiring and unromantic matters, the mighty money managers save it for roads and luxurious vehicles that may move around unregulated to their ultimate destruction through acci­dents. According to the wizards of finance, it is wasteful to spend money on training drivers, putting up safety signs, regulating the mad rush or controlling over speeding.
Other agencies. Same is the story of the Central Intelligence Agencies (in districts), Crime Branch, Security Branch, Special Branch, Finger Print Bureau and other services necessary for effective policing. In fact, these branches are much worse than the general police because of their lack of re­sources and also clout. They do not have any databanks of essential facts and records on the basis of which they could seek guidance for their functioning. The only asset they possess is their authority and they misuse it to the hilt. Authority without resources, restraint and responsibility can be extremely dangerous and counter productive.
These agencies, which are supposed to be supporting and coordinating the field policing activity, have become stagnant and useless. Data building, analysis, coordination among police stations, districts and provinces, trans­mission of operational information in time, synthesis of inferences for actions and operations, specific crime intelligence and other essential moves and modes of these agencies need funds for their infrastructure and operations.

There can be no progress without peace and peace is possible only through justice and fairplay.
The ruling elite and the intellectuals must realize the importance of in­ternal social peace without which societies perish more quickly than from ex­ternal aggression. In fact, external threats invigorate a society while internal disorder destroys it. It is of paramount importance that the society and the government assign this aspect its due priority and allocate adequate re­sources.