The leaking of videos of those in the custody of police, or through the Safe Cities cameras, is something that calls into the fairness of the justice system, a report published in Dawn newspaper notes.
The report quotes Supreme Court Advocate Risat Ali Azad, who is of the opinion that the right to fair trial is a constitutional trial and leaked videos on social media allow people to create biases. This can lead to a great miscarriage of justice, he says.
Leaked videos by law enforcement have been a major issue in Pakistan. From the 2017 leak of Hussain Nawaz's video while he was at the Federal Judicial Academy to the leak of various videos by police from the Safe Cities cameras that were used to blackmail people, this issue keeps recurring.
Sara Zulfiqar, a psychologist, says that this happens because of bio-psychosocial factors that arise in the environment that the police operate in. The drive to feel important and in power at times does lead to this issue.
Right now, the UN is helping carrying out training to sensitize the police as well. But this problem shows a shortcoming of the greater justice system and needs to be addressed with strong data protection laws.
The image of the police has also been affected by this lack of professionalism.
There is social media outrage against the police whenever such videos are circulated. The police believe this also reduces the empathy that people have for them, specially when police constables get killed in the line of duty.
This represents the strenuous relationship between the police and the public at large. It is mired with distrust and antipathy, something that needs to be resolved.
The report quotes Supreme Court Advocate Risat Ali Azad, who is of the opinion that the right to fair trial is a constitutional trial and leaked videos on social media allow people to create biases. This can lead to a great miscarriage of justice, he says.
Leaked videos by law enforcement have been a major issue in Pakistan. From the 2017 leak of Hussain Nawaz's video while he was at the Federal Judicial Academy to the leak of various videos by police from the Safe Cities cameras that were used to blackmail people, this issue keeps recurring.
Sara Zulfiqar, a psychologist, says that this happens because of bio-psychosocial factors that arise in the environment that the police operate in. The drive to feel important and in power at times does lead to this issue.
Right now, the UN is helping carrying out training to sensitize the police as well. But this problem shows a shortcoming of the greater justice system and needs to be addressed with strong data protection laws.
The image of the police has also been affected by this lack of professionalism.
There is social media outrage against the police whenever such videos are circulated. The police believe this also reduces the empathy that people have for them, specially when police constables get killed in the line of duty.
This represents the strenuous relationship between the police and the public at large. It is mired with distrust and antipathy, something that needs to be resolved.