Policing in Indo-Pakistan was based on Police Act 1861. This system was designed to perpetuate British rule in the sub-continent and was based on Irish Constabulary Model rather than on British Model. Irish Constabulary Model was meant to suppress and control the public not to serve them. Sir Robert Peel who was British home secretary established London Metropolitan Police in 1829. It was service oriented, people friendly and was accountable to public. Commissionerate system based on British model was only implemented in Bombay, Calcutta and Madras where the population of Europeans was more. In rest of India Police Act of 1861 was implemented. Pakistan inherited Police Act 1861 after independence.The history of Police reforms in Pakistan is not very encouraging. We were never serious about Police reforms since independence. Quaid-i-Azam wanted to bring Commissionerate system in Karachi and a bill was passed in 1948 but the bill was deliberately delayed and never got signed by him. There were 25 different commissions on Police reforms with no result. In 2002 Police Order was promulgated. For the first time Police was made service oriented, politically neutral, operationally independent and democratically controlled with both internal and external accountability systems. But Police order 2002 was half-heartedly implemented. In Islamabad, Sind and Baluchistan it was never adopted. In Punjab and KP it was partially implemented.
By TALKS WITH SULTAN TEMURI on September 03, 2022
