Violence against women is rampant in Pakistan and has reached

epidemic proportions; last year, in particular, can be remembered

as harrowing for the women of Pakistan. [1] While the number of

crimes against women in Pakistan continues to soar, the

importance of knowing whether the police and other law

enforcement agencies possess the requisite gender sensitivity and

responsiveness to deal with these cases becomes all-important.

Reports on the matter indicate that police behaviour is

unsatisfactory, and data reveals that less than 2% of women in

Pakistan who experience violence seek help from the police. [2] This

abysmally low number reflects a lacuna in the criminal justice

system and this article aims to delve into the factors which prevent

women from seeking help from the police. Additionally, this article

discusses the steps necessary to address the institutional and

cultural impediments to women’s access to justice.

Women and the police in Pakistan
Pakistan saw a surge in cases of violent extremism and terrorism
during the early 2000s which led the Pakistani police to focus their
attention and resources on counter-terrorism.[3] An enhanced
involvement in counter-terrorism resulted in the diminished role of
female police officers and police focus shifted away from building
public trust in the police, disproportionately impacting female
officers and female victims of various crimes.[4] In the past six years,
provincial governments in conjunction with the police departments
in various provinces have launched a variety of initiatives including
dedicated gender protection units to restore public trust and
improve the quintessential ‘thana culture.’’[5] Police stations,
nevertheless, continue to be dominated by patriarchal and gender
insensitive practices. When female victims report crimes, their
complaints are often brushed under the carpet by police officials as
“personal matters” or they are subjected to vicious character
assassination, victim-blaming and insensitive gender slurs.
Superintendent of Police and former Director of the National Police
Academy, Maria Mahmood, revealed that the most serious
challenge she faces as a female officer is that ‘women do not report
cases of violence because of victim-blaming attitudes by police
officers.’[6]
If a female complainant is persistent in pursuing the complaint, it
has been reported that police officials attempt to resolve the
dispute by mediation or reconciliation instead of registering an FIR.
Due to a general atmosphere of hostility, gender insensitivity, and
male dominance, women prefer not to take their disputes to the
police and ultimately reach settlements with their perpetrators,
often compromising on their rights.[7] It, therefore, becomes
crucial to address the reasons for the lack of gender sensitivity in
the police department. One major reason for the gender
insensitivity in the police force is the extension of the patriarchal
attitudes, norms and taboos that plague our society. The general
perception among society is that a woman of sound character and
moral values will never need to turn to a police station. The societal
stigmatisation attached with police stations deters women from
reporting incidents[8] and gender norms that promote aggressive
masculine culture pervade our law enforcement agencies making
police stations hostile spaces for women. Low female
representation in law enforcement agencies, currently 1.5% in the
police department,[9] also discourages female complainants since
the level of comfort they have in disclosing their issues to female
officers is not the same when it comes to male officers. These
issues can, however, be addressed through targeted efforts for
gender-responsive policing. Farzana Kausar, a former officer in
charge of the Women and Juvenile Facilitation Centre in Gujrat,
expressed that prior to receiving gender sensitivity training, she
viewed women survivors of violence in a stereotypical manner and
believed that women report broken relationships as violence.[10]
Current initiatives for gender-responsive policing in Pakistan
Although every district in Punjab now has dedicated ‘women’s help
desks’ to deal with gender-specific crimes and complaints,
[11]
information on their existence and location has not been
effectively disseminated in society, especially in rural zones where
there continues to be a significant degree of incognisance about
rights and redress mechanisms. In June 2021, the first female
police station was inaugurated in Quetta and it has 19 female
police officers deployed to provide dedicated support to female
victims of crime.[12] Despite being lauded as a beacon of hope for
women’s access to justice, the fact remains that for a province with
26 districts, one centre dedicated to women is not enough. In
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, seven ‘women’s help desks’ have been
established which have been selected to process cases filed by
women.[13] In Sindh, four women were made heads of male police
stations to bolster women’s trust in these police stations.
[14] Islamabad has taken lead by introducing a helpline dedicated
to gender crimes and establishing a model gender protection unit
which has both call desk and walk-in facilities and is exclusively run
by female officers.[15] Despite all these initiatives, there has been a
preponderance of instances where women have been pressured
into taking back their complaints. According to Superintendent of
Police, Mahmood, in cases involving domestic violence, the police
tell victims that domestic violence is a family matter and they try to
resolve the case instead of applying the relevant laws.
[16]
Exceptionally low conviction rates for gender crimes also
dissuade women who feel pursuing justice will be a waste of time,
resources and effort.[17]
Recommendations
Gender insensitivity which has unfortunately incorporated itself
into our police structure has multifaceted implications that require
bold and across the board changes so that women’s access to
justice can be improved. Structural, cultural, institutional, and most
importantly attitudinal change within the police department is the
best way forward. Changing police attitudes is a priority as it is an
essential component of the technical resources of any department.
Although strongly incorporated biases may take long to neutralise,
efforts should be made to increase gender sensitivity in the
department by organising regular training for officials of all ranks.
Emphasis should additionally be placed upon discharging duties in
an unbiased way through the application of relevant laws, and
preconceived societal notions should not impact professional work.
[18]
New operating practices, incentive structures and evaluation
methods that are sensitive to women’s needs should be introduced
into police work. Abuses of women’s rights must be punished as
criminal acts, for that, police and civilians alike must internalise the
idea that such abuses are criminal in nature and cannot be dealt
with as personal or family matters. Both male and female police
officers often lack a basic understanding of the nature of crimes
committed against women which must be changed by constant
reinforcement. Information about the existence of new operating
procedures and dedicated police units established to address
crimes against women must be disseminated in society through a
mass awareness campaign. Furthermore, the performance of
gender units needs to be closely monitored and the data reflecting
their performance must be made public to reinforce public trust
and confidence in these units. Low female representation in the
police force reflects the fact that police work is still viewed as ‘male
work’ around the world. The retention of female officers is a related
problem. Women need to be aggressively recruited in the police
force and methods to retain them in service should be devised. A
department works best when women are involved in the
accountability process. Women themselves need to hold their police
forces to account, especially by participating in the relevant
oversight mechanisms. Bodies such as police review boards,
national human rights commissions, community-police liaison
committees and international organisations need to engage women
in systems of accountability and oversight, so that their concerns
can be brought directly to police forces.
 International Law Shaping
Policing of Gender Based
Violence in Pakistan
Despite frailties of international law at international level where it
has not been able to maintain international peace and security in
the wake of Russia-Ukraine episode, international law is continuing
to impact national law of Pakistan. In a latest case (titled as
Mumtaz Bibi Case) that came up for hearing before Justice Babar
Sattar of the Islamabad High Court, the international human rights
law has been used to shape an important question of law that has
frustrated many an attempt to protect and police rights of children
especially minor girls in gender based violence cases that take
many shapes like child marriages, forced marriages, rapes
(legalized as marriages) and habeas corpus litigation that have a
girl’s custody in question.
The judgement is now not only being picked up by civil society,
lawyers, justice sector practitioners, but also by police leadership
as it is remarkable and has, after a long time, settled an issue that
affected many criminal prosecutions that enhanced impunity of
vested groups that hid behind religion, culture, customs and gaps
of law in fulfillment of their own agenda. The judgement establishes
the primacy of criminal law and has provided much needed clarity
on the issue of age of a minor girl in a criminal case. Earlier such
cases were often framed in terms of family law and the aspects of
criminal liability of an accused kidnapper were confounded and
conflated leading to acquittals and cancellation of criminal cases.
The judgement, it may be noted, emanated out of a plea of mother
of a minor girl (aged 14 years and 2 months old) who was seeking
to meet her daughter who had reportedly married during her
alleged kidnapping. The facts of the case show that a criminal case
was registered at Police Station Golra, Islamabad alleging
kidnapping of a minor girl. During the investigation, it transpired
that the minor girl was married. The investigation followed the
normal course. It noted the factum of marriage of the minor girl
and without going into the circumstances of her consent and
volition started treating a criminal act as a family law issue. Justice
Babar Sattar did not allow this to happen and lodged the minor girl
to a Dar-ul-Aman (state shelter house). He, after examining
different national statutes and international law, declared that for
application of criminal law, the age of a child shall be eighteen
years. Based on this declaration, he granted the plea of the mother
and handed over the custody of minor girl to her mother denying
the accused benefit of age of victim and exposing the accused to
criminal liability as required by law. Obviously, in doing so, he
charted out a different approach in contradistinction to the run of
the mill adjudication.
Conclusions of the judgement were as charitable as its reasoning.
Brief snapshot of reasoning is presented here. Elucidating on the
constitutional foundations of the rule of law (article 4), the right to
privacy and right to be treated with dignity (article 14), right to
education for children (article 25-A) and principle of policy for
protection of mothers and children (article 37), Justice Babar Sattar
set the scene for exercise of the constitutional jurisdiction that is
vested in High Courts for enforcement of fundamental rights. He
neatly juxtaposed family law, contract law and criminal law
alongside the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Children
(UNCRC), the international human rights law on the subject, to
show how different domains of national and international laws
informed and supplied knowledge on the subject of age of a child.
Stocktaking the case-law on family law related to validity of a child
marriage, and how the Muslim Personal Law was invoked to divert
the thrust of a criminal case from criminal liability to debate about
validity of marriages, he held that criminal liability of an accused
cannot be diminished in criminal cases. The primacy of criminal law
that arms the state to use its legal power to protect children
through policing was restored through the reasoning of the
judgement. Re-establishing the province of criminal law, it found
that there was abundant evidence in form of statutory criminal and
administrative law (the Majority Act, 1875, the Child Marriage
Restraint Act, 1929, the Protection of Women (Criminal Laws
Amendment) Act, 2006, the Juvenile Justice System Act, 2018, the
Islamabad Capital Territory Child Protection Act, 2018, the Zainab
Alert, Recovery and Response Act, 2020 and the Criminal Law
(Second Amendment) Act, 2016, the National Commission on the
Rights of Child Act, 2017) that underlined the legislative and state
intent to protect minor girls and children. The regime founded by
international law through the UNCRC was reproduced in the
judgement and the relationship of international law and national
law was woven together by applicable jurisprudence as developed
by the Supreme Court of Pakistan. In addition, the relationship of
civil and criminal justice systems was also appraised. The
judgement noted that in view of unequivocal legislation
criminalizing child marriages, how a marriage contract with illegal
object of child marriage can sustain in civil and family law. There is
no doubt that the judgement is seminal in nature as it has
highlighted the gaps in implementation of criminal law related to
gender based violence. It directed the Cabinet Division of the
Federal Government to bring the matter into the notice of the
Parliament.
From the point of view of policing, prosecution, adjudication of
gender based violence cases, the judgement has brought to fore the
question of criminality which was lost in the fog of debate of
validity of marriages. Though the judgement has been rendered in
Islamabad High Court, but it is expected to excite other courts to
take note of its intellectual prowess that has clearly pointed out
legal and jurisprudential gaps in the criminal justice system of
Pakistan. It has also set in motion the movement to look at
international law more closely as international legal obligations are
turning into reality with every passing day. From Pakistan’s
perspective, at least for the time being, the propensity to
nationalize international laws is on the horizon.