Human Rights-Friendly Policing—A Paradigm Shift in Pakistan, A Case of KPk Police

Fasihuddin (PSP), Basharat Hussain & Imran Ahmad Sajid

Abstract
Policing and human rights is a relatively new subject of interest for sociologists, criminologists, criminal justice practitioners and human rights activists. To many, human rights and policing seem to be completely different fields of interest, with the former being a hindrance in administering the later. However, to writers, like Crawshaw1 (2010) and others, these two are related and regulate each other in many ways. Even though the debate over human rights and
policing started several decades ago, the idea has gained growing attention in Pakistan within the second half of the first decade of 21st century. The term human rights—friendly policing‘ is being used for the first time in this paper in order to describe this newly emerging trend in Pakistan. The traditional function of the police like arrest and detention of the bad guys is gradually shifting or tilting to that of protection of human rights throughout the world. This paper describes the prospects of a paradigm shift from traditional policing towards human rights—friendly policing in Pakistan.

Keywords: Policing, Human Rights, Human Rights-Friendly Policing, Paradigm Shift, Crime Control, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK), Pakistan