Police Mediation in Minor Criminal Offences: Reform Framework for Pakistan’s Criminal Justice System

Abstract

Pakistan criminal justice system is beset and fraught with challenges like case congestion, procedural delay, unequal access to justice, limited institutional capacity and the operation of cases of minor interpersonal disputes through formal criminal proceedings as the daily routine. The formal criminal process is critical to pursue serious offences and to protect public safety, however, the exclusive use of the criminal process for minor and legally compoundable offences can create excess financial, institutional and social costs. What we describe as police mediation can be understood as a regulated process of police screening and referral to an independent (or at least sufficiently autonomous) mediator over settled minor criminal disputes without creating a parallel (and more efficient) system of criminal adjudication. Pakistan has critical legal building blocks available for this kind of reform such as section 345 of the Code of Criminal Procedure 1898, provincial alternative dispute resolution (ADR) laws and the legal nexus between Dispute Resolution Councils (DRCs) and criminal ADR in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Nevertheless, the current framework continues to be piecemeal, offering no coherent national blueprint for police referral, case eligibility, voluntariness, mediator independence, victim protection, prosecutorial oversight, judicial endorsement, confidentiality, and institutional accountability. Employing qualitative doctrinal legal research, the article juxtaposes the constitutional, statutory, judicial and institutional frame of Pakistan with international restorative justice standards and domestic academic discourse on Dispute Resolution Councils. It contends that police referred mediation is legally and institutionally possible only if limited to appropriate types of compoundable crime, insulated from coercive investigation powers, consented to base on an informed and continuing basis, and with prosecutorial and judicial oversights in place. This article proposes a legislatively based Police Referred Mediation and Diversion Framework founded upon independent screening, accredited mediators, compulsory exclusions, access to legal advocacy, digital monitoring, written settlements, and external oversight. The suggested model, therefore, attempts to achieve the twin objectives of a better balance between proportionate punishment, expeditious disposal and fair trial ground and therefore protecting the constitutional guarantees of dignity, equality, due process and fair trial.