Police, State and Society: Challenges and Opportunities

Kamran Adil

Globally, police and policing face multifarious challenges; often these challenges
have political dimensions. They defy proper restatement and measurement due to
various reasons. Essentially, these challenges can be categorized as functional,
societal, state related and of international import. From the US to China, two
extremes are visible based on the political and legal systems that shape them for
policing and internal security. Pakistan is generally designed towards Common
Law approach of the UK and the US, but in practice it does not follow the design.
Its challenges are of acute nature as the country’s population, governance
structures, security considerations, geography, colonial past and politics directly
affect them. In this piece, some of the chief challenges have been stated for
consideration by all and sundry: