Crossing the line: Perception about police corruption in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

Farhat Ullah, Zia Ullah Akhunzada & Imran Ahmad Sajid

Abstract
It is very common that many citizens in Pakistan society believe public
officials are corrupt. The study entitled “Crossing the line: A study of
University students opinion about corruption in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,
Pakistan” exploring the opinion of university students regarding in police
basic department and police personnel. Kohat University of science &
Technology (KUST), Khyber Paktunkhwa was chosen as universe of the
study. Data was collected through a structured questionnaire by using
Likert scale from a sample of 300 participants determined through Sekaran
table from six different departments of social sciences, students including
both male and female. Total number of respondents (students) was 1329 in
these departments and proportionate stratified sample technique was used
to determine the sample size from each strata whereas systematic sampling
method were applied to pick the samples from the six selected sample
groups. The collected data was analyzed and tabulated. The results
produced a number of key findings such as lack of check and balance on
police personnel leads to corruption, corruption affects police performance
and the recruiters are unfair in selection process of police personnel. On the
basis of study findings, it is concluded that in students‟ opinion, police
department is one of the corrupt department and there is lack of
transparency since long which requires correction. The study suggests there
should be proper check and balance system, merit based recruitment,
seminars and workshops for raising awareness and strict punishment to
those who are involved in corruption.

Keywords: Corruption, Lack of transparency, police, students and Pakistan