The Role of Private Sector in Improving Public Security and Access to Justice

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1 The Role of Private Sector in Improving Public Security and Access to Justice

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3 Introduction The provision of security and access to justice are universally regarded as essential public services, and basic prerequisites for promoting good governance and ensuring a peaceful environment in a society, which in itself is a must for sustained social and economic development. The lack of security and access to justice, on the other hand, undermines peace and has negatives consequences for social and economic growth. This calls for the private sector role in improving security and access to justice. This research report sheds light on private sector s role in improving public security and access to justice with special reference to districts Jacobabad and Kashmore. The report is structured as follows: the introductory comments are followed by a brief section on what does lack of security and access to justice mean for business. The next section highlights a few examples where private sector has played a role in improving public security and access to justice. The example are from Pakistan as well as from other countries. Then comes the section on the current situation via-a-vis public security and access to justice in two target districts. The final section throws light on Alert s engagement with the private sector in Jacobabad and Kashmore with the aim of sensitizing and capacitating it for playing a role in improving public security and access to justice. What Does the Lack of Public Security and Access to Justice Mean for the Private Sector? Research by International Alert in Pakistan and elsewhere has identified several negative consequences of lack of public security and access to justice for private sector. Some of these consequences are being described below: Youth Migration and Shortage of Skilled Labour: When lack of security and access to justice undermines peace in an area, people, particularly the youth, tend to search for better options elsewhere, leading to outmigration. In many cases, this out-migration can create shortage of skilled labour as such labour is more likely to find alternative options in other areas. Lack of skilled labor poses a serious operational challenge for any business enterprise. Missed Opportunities: When security situation is tenuous in an area, capital tends to flee as many businesses may completely shut down while others may considerably reduce their operations there. There is very little possibility of new investments. And this could happen even if there are other positive factors such as area s auspicious geographical location and availability of raw material, which otherwise would have been a big attraction for private businesses to invest in such an area. Lack of security thus deprives private businesses of many opportunities to earn profit. 3

4 Increase in Petty Crime & Theft: A marked feature of lack of security in an area is increase in theft and petty crimes. This happens mainly because of youth unemployment and week policing. Small business are the main victims of such acts. What makes the issue particularly serious is that most of these business are not insured, and that even small losses matter a lot for them given the size of their business activity. Kidnappings & Extortions: When lawlessness becomes prevalent, many are tempted to profit from this chaos. In such atmosphere incidence of kidnappings for ransom and extortions dramatically increases. Research has shown that it s mostly business people who become target of such criminal activities. Extra Spending on Security: When public security institutions fail in providing security to masses including business people, and business people become the primary target of thefts, robberies, extortions, and kidnappings for ransom, they have to arrange for security for themselves. This private security comes at a cost, which becomes more burdensome given that in such an atmosphere of lawlessness, businesses are already struggling. The Role of Private Sector in Improving Public Security and Access to Justice: Some Examples There have been numerous examples, in various parts of the world, of private sector playing a role in improving public security and access to justice. Among the more publicized cases are those of three Central American countries El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras where private sector s specifically designed policies led not only to increase in corporate productivity but also in reduction in violence and improvement in public security.1 Another salient example is that of Ciudad Juarez and Monterrey, two important industrial centers in Mexico, where public security situation became extremely precarious from 2008 onwards with crimes such as murder, theft and drug and human trafficking started touching unprecedented levels. In both cities, the civic engagement and activist postures adopted by the private sector led to a substantial decrease in crimes such as extortion, kidnapping, auto theft and other robberies.2 This civic engagement by the private sector was manifested in the establishment of dialogues with authorities, and mechanisms for monitoring and reporting on government actions to combat crime. Private sector activism in both cities relied on creating trust among citizens to encourage them to report crimes, and press specific demands with local and state officials. The private sector also helped to staff crime 1. See for example Private Sector Leads Efforts to Curb Gang Violence in Central America, at 2. Lucy Conger, The Private Sector and Public Security: The Cases of Ciudad Juarez and Monterrey, Wilson Center Working Paper, March 2014, at pdf. 3. ibid. 4

5 report hotlines and web platforms, and to create channels of communication that relay citizen intelligence about delinquency to the authorities.3 In Pakistan, Citizen-Police Liaison Committee (CPLC) is a notable example of how private sector can go beyond its conventional role and contribute towards improvement in public security and access to justice. The following lines throw light on CPLC s example. The CPLC s case is being highlighted for two reasons: a) it provides an indigenous example of private sector s role in improving public security and access to justice, and b) the CPLC model has served as a guide for International Alert s efforts in districts Jacobabad and Kashmore to lobby and capacitate the private sector to play a role in improving public security and access to justice. Founded in 1990 in Karachi, Pakistan s largest city, the CPLC is a pioneering crosssector partnership, primarily aimed at improving public security in Karachi. The CPLC describes itself as a non-political statutory institution, operationally independent and managed by dedicated and concerned citizens offering their honorary services. 4 With roots in the private sector, the CPLC is supported largely by private donations and voluntary staff. A legal mandate under provincial law invests the CPLC and its members with magisterial powers. Although it has not replaced the police, the CPLC has adopted and reformed core police functions and improved performance through technical support, partnering and supportive engagement with the community.5 The CPLC s emergence and its subsequent contribution to improvement in public security and access to justice clearly show how lack of security hurts private businesses and how private businesses can contribute to improve public security and access to justice. The CPLC s emergence is linked with the precarious security situation in Karachi in the late 1980s and the deleterious consequences this situation was producing for private businesses in Karachi. Masud (2002) in his work on CPLC has elaborately made this point, highlighting Karachi s precarious security situation in the 1980s and 1990s, and how it caused consternation among Karachi s business community but also a realization that lack of peace in the city was posing a grave challenge to their commercial interests. He notes that in 1990 alone, there were 79 cases of kidnappings for ransom, which were mostly targeted at business community. Car snatching was another crime which was becoming increasingly rampant in the city and was mostly hurting the business people.6 The CPLC s website maintains a long list of its notified functions. Masud (2002) clubs several of them under four headings: Information Collection: mainly about stolen vehicles, registered criminal cases, and about convicted and under trial persons in Sindh province. at Roman Pryjomko, Partnering for Security: The Citizens Police Liaison Committee in Karachi, Humanitarian Exchange Magazine, issue 50, April Mohammad O. Masud, Co-producing citizen security: the Citizen-Police Liaison Committee in Karachi, IDS Working Paper 172, October 2002, at

6 Information Analysis: mainly crime analysis about car thefts and kidnappings for the consumption of police and other law enforcement agencies (LEAs). Direct Participation in Police Operations: extortionists. mainly against kidnappers and Assistance to Citizens: mainly in tasks such as registering First Information Report (FIR), recovery of stolen vehicles, and in identifying suspects. 7 The CPLC has proved to be quite successful in delivering what it has been mandated to do. The model has been replicated in several other cities of the province. It has also shown its resilience as it has survived without considerable government funding. More significantly, it has survived several political upheavals in the country, including changes in government, and occasional hostility from political elements.8 Security and Access to Justice: Situation in Jacobabad and Kashmore Before we discuss how private sector can play a meaningful role in improving public security and access to justice in districts Jacobabad and Kashmore, it seems pertinent to have an idea of the obtaining situation in target districts vis-à-vis public security and access to justice. The state of public security in both districts is extremely poor. Our Baseline, Peace Effectiveness Review and Action Research all have made this point. The security situation is challenged by a number of peace-threatening factors: tribal feuds, sectarian (Shia-Sunni) and religious (Hindu-Muslim) schisms, and ethnic tensions between Sindhis and Baluchis. Tribal feuds are a particularly serious challenge in both districts, especially in Kashmore. According to a report compiled by a Sindh-based Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), just between 2010 and 2012, tribal feuds claimed 181 lives in Kashmore district, the highest number of causalities in a single district in Sindh.9 These factors have created an environment in which people find their sense of security shaken. Our Baseline showed that in both districts a significant number of respondents were feeling either insecure or only somewhat secure. ibid. Roman Pryjomko, op. cit killed in Sindh tribal feuds in 3 years, The Nation, October 10, Alert Team s Key informant Interviews in Kashmore on September 4,

7 This precarious security environment has been taking a heavy toll on the prospects of human development. Schools and basic health units remain closed in tensions-hit areas, depriving the people of basis services like health and education. Businesses too get affected. One of our key informants in Kashmore identified the precarious security situation as the biggest challenge for the private businesses in the area, while another one, a rice mill owner, said that he had the resources and wished to invest in the area but would not do so due to prevailing insecurity and poor law and order situation.10 Worse still, many people had been forced to leave their ancestral areas and move to safe places. In fact, as shown by our Baseline, tribal clashes were the most significant reason of migration in district Kashmore, cited by 73.87% of the migrants. The situation vis-à-vis access to justice is equally poor. Very few people have trust in formal justice institutions. Corruption and inordinate delay in deciding the cases are the main complains people have about the formal justice mechanism. Moreover, getting justice through this system is deemed to be expensive, which many people cannot afford. The following graphs, which show the level of public trust in various institutions, also highlight the extremely low level of public trust in formal justice institutions. Another strong indicator of lack of access to justice was the finding that overwhelmingly large number of respondents of Baseline survey in both districts believed that it was factors like money, sifarish and their personal/family clout that they needed to access justice and not the merit of their case. 7

8 The Role of Private Sector in Improving Public Security and Access to Justice in Districts Jacobabad and Kashmore Jacobabad and Kashmore are among the least developed and most impoverished districts in Sindh. District Jacobabad has the fifth highest score on Multi-dimensional Poverty Index (MPI) in Sindh, while Kashmore has the sixth highest score on the same index.11 In both districts literacy rate is far below the national average. Our Baseline and Action Research further showed that the level of physical development is very low in both districts, with minimal provision of basic services such as education, health public transport and clean drinking water. Moreover, both districts are highly vulnerable to natural floods, and have been repeatedly hit by floods in recent years. And to top it all, both districts suffer from a multitude of peace threatening factors, which have been referred to in the preceding section. Such low levels of physical and economic development can hardly provide a conducive environment for the growth of local private sector. And the state of private sector in both districts attests to the veracity of this observation. There are not many large scale industrial units in either district. With a few exceptions, no big corporate player has any meaningful presence in the area. The only local industry that is visible in two districts is the rice industry. And this is because this is a rice-growing area. Other than these rice mills, private sector mostly consists of small and medium businesses. 11. Arif Naveed and Nazim Ali, Clustered Deprivation: District Profile of Poverty in Pakistan, at org/publications/files/clustered%20deprivation-district%20profile%20of%20poverty%20in%20pakistan.pdf. 12. Alert Team s Key Informant Interviews in Kashmore on September 4,

9 However, regardless of its size and level of development, private sector in districts Jacobabad and Kashmore has been a victim of the precarious security situation. There have been several cases of kidnappings of business people for ransom. Due to this situation many businessmen have been forced to move to provincial capital Karachi and run their businesses from there. Several small traders have suffered financial losses due to petty crimes and theft. As they find local police unable to provide them security, many business people have hired private security, thereby having to incur additional costs in order to get security for their families and businesses. Since a significant number of private businesses in both districts are owned by minority Hindus, they find themselves particularly helpless in the face of such challenges. Several of them said that they had been living under a constant fear that anyone could harm them any time, and would go scot free.12 However, the existence of these very challenges provides the private sector with a powerful incentive to go beyond its conventional role of being merely an economic actor, and take up issues like public security and access to justice since improvements vis-à-vis public security and access to justice would help reduce crimes and violence against private businesses, thereby providing them with opportunities to grow. It was against this backdrop that International Alert undertook the initiative of engaging private sector in districts Jacobabad and Kashmore with a view to capacitating it to play a role in improving public security and access to justice in both districts. Alert found that private business people in Jacobabad and Kashmore were duly concerned about the lack of security and access to justice in their areas as they were fully aware of the negative consequences of the existing situation for their businesses. As mentioned previously, these negative consequences ranged from extortions and kidnappings for ransom to business people having to leave their ancestral areas for safer locations. The private business people, however, were not sure what role private sector could play in improving public security and access to justice in their areas. Even some of them were skeptical that private sector could play any role at all in ameliorating the existing situation. By and large, however, there was a willingness among private business people to go beyond their tradition role and engage with issues such as public security and access to justice. Equally important were the findings that private business people lacked any understanding of the potential negative consequences of their investment decisions for local communities. Similarly, they were not aware of the concept of, and the need for, peace sensitive business practices. These findings are largely consistent with International Alert s previous research on private sector in Pakistan. According to this research, private business in Pakistan has a strong interest in undertaking charitable activities which is evidenced by the fact that an estimated 52% of publicly listed companies and businesses in Pakistan practice some form of corporate philanthropy. Much of this philanthropy goes to 9

10 education and skills training interventions two sectors deemed to have highest potential of contributing to poverty reduction through making the youth employable. However, there is little evidence to suggest that private sector philanthropy is part of any coordinated effort to promote peace and social cohesion in the target areas/ communities. 13 Alert s lobbying with and capacity building efforts for the private sector were designed with these issues in mind. Alert arranged meetings between representatives of communities and private sector in different areas. What was unique about these meetings was they provided a forum for communities to freely share their problems, particularly with reference to access to security and justice, with the representatives of private sector. These meetings resulted in making the private sector representatives realize not only the problems of communities but also how they could play a role in ameliorating the situation. They became convinced that they needed to think beyond the traditional concept of charity and should get involved in more political issues like provision of security and justice, and thereby should contribute to building social cohesion and peace in the society. In addition, the representatives of private sector were given trainings in Do No Harm and were told about the need for adopting peace sensitive business practices. All these efforts appeared to have worked well as change in the attitude of private business people has been more than palpable. The biggest evidence of this change was the establishment of Aman Tijarat Groups (ATG) in both districts. One ATG, comprising six representatives of private sector, was established in each district. The members of ATGs have shown keen interest in playing their role in improving public security and people s access to justice by lobbying with duty bearers on behalf of right holders. They have also shown interest in replicating CPLC model in their respective district. Last but not the least, ATGs have developed a shared vision of peace with the help of different segments of the community. Alert s experience in Jacobabad and Kashmore, thus, highlights the dangers that lack of security pose for private sector and successfully makes the point that private sector can play a role in improving public security and access to justice for marginalized communities. 13. Olawale Ismail and Rabia Nusrat, Exploring the Potential of the Private Sector to Contribute to Peacebuilding in Pakistan, April 2014, London: International Alert. 10

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12 International Alert Pakistan House # 13, Street 44, F-6/1, Islamabad. Tel + 92 (0) Fax +92 (0)