Project Overview
The criminal investigation process is an ever-evolving endeavor and requires consistent improvement in technique, know-how, and capacities. It is for this reason that under directions from the Honorable Supreme Court of Pakistan, the various Provincial Police Services and other Police bodies with coordination from the National Police Bureau and expert services from leading professionals, have come together to develop this detailed Handbook on Criminal Investigation. This Handbook has been prepared as a practical guide to investigators in a variety of situations. It covers all the major aspects of criminal investigation ordinarily undertaken by Police officers in Pakistan. These include the initiation of an investigation, visiting the crime scene, managing the crime scene and gathering evidence from it, ensuring medical examinations or post-mortems, obtaining witness statements, conducting searches, making arrests, applying for remand of suspects, interrogating suspects, recording confessions, undertaking identification parades, analyzing all types of evidence, preparing key documentation especially the final police report, engaging with prosecutors, among numerous other issues.
The Handbook is structured upon self-contained chapters for ease of reference. The content of each chapter looks to distill the most relevant aspects of the topic. Each chapter looks at the statutory provisions governing it such as the Code of Criminal Procedure 1898, the Qanun-e-Shahadat Order 1984, and the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997 among various others. Additionally, key provisions of the Police Rules 1934 are inserted wherever they provide guidance on a matter. Importantly, the jurisprudence developed by the superior judiciary of Pakistan has been included throughout this handbook to provide guidance to investigators of the standards applied by the judiciary. This case law has been incorporated after reviewing hundreds of judgements and retaining only the most relevant.
Pursuant to the Honorable Supreme Court of Pakistan’s directions, this Handbook will be annually revised and updated to include a broader set of topics as well as examine subjects in more depth. We are confident that this first edition Handbook on Criminal Investigation in Pakistan will be invaluable to investigators across the country.
Date: 1st January, 2021
Team Lead: Oves Anwar
Research Team: Hira Arif, Shayan Ahmad Khan, Abraze Aqil, Saad Hasan, Azeem Armaghan, Aimal Amjad Qureshi
