Police reform.

The Police Service of PakiAstan (PSP) is a federal apApointment that is carried out through the Federal PubAlic Service Commission (FPSC). Officers of this service are then asAsigned to the provincAes for the maintenance of law and order. As a colonial arm of conAtrol, the force was not created to serve. Under the PSP officers, the rank and file of the force are recruited by the department itself. Police staAtions are controlled by the StaAtion House Officers (SHOs) who at one time lived in-house, but not anymore. FIRs (First IntelliAgence Reports) and other comAplaints are lodged with the area stations. The SHOs enjoy unlimAited powers which, despite sevAeral reviews and reform recomAmendations, have never been curtailed in the last 75 years. In the famous Cornelius CommisAsion Report, the unlimited auAthority of the SHOs was covered at length for a transition from a colonial to a democratic state-order law enforcement agency. Unfortunately, the coercive apAproach prevails till today, callAing for major reforms.

To make matters worse, miliAtary dictators relied on force to extend their support which did not exist in the public. The poAlice became a mistress of powAer brokers which started to work against the interests of the public. It was 'Madre Millat' Fatima Jinnah who first chalAlenged the coercive state appaAratus of the dictatorial regime in the presidential elections of 1965, followed by students in 1968 when the usurper started to celebrate his decade of progAress. By March 1969, he was gone to be replaced by his apApointed Army Chief Agha MuAhammad Yayha Khan. After the elections in 1970 followed by the break-up of Jinnah's PakiAstan in 1971, Zulfiqar Ali BhutAto (ZAB) came into power in the Western Wing. In his openAing speech, ZAB warned the poAlice force to behave and give up their coercion methods, which had left marks on his back. InAstead of reforms to serve in a democratic set-up, the police decided to go on strike in PunAjab and KP (NWFP then). The two young governors (Khar and Sherpao) rejected their blackmail and threatened them with mass dismissals. The AwaAmi Hukumat as it was called, inAtroduced reforms to control the police, and PSP was restored...