ID Card Please! No Sir: Dissecting Power of LEAs in Document Checks

Abstract

Citizens across the globe, especially in Pakistan mostly are asked a frequent yet debatable query and demand for identity cards and other documents on a daily basis by the Police. Be it the scheduled checkpoints or informal exchanges, the police officers habitually ask the citizens to show their identification documents. Though such actions are meant to guarantee security and uphold law and order, their legitimacy and legal sanctity have ignited much debate and raised significant concerns about individual rights and distresses like privacy invasion. The "equilibrium between the right to privacy and the concerns like security" is the epicentre of our analysis. From one perspective, promising security, peace and tranquillity and enforcing laws are the duties invested in the executive, however, the matter of Privacy invasion is yet another factor to be appraised by the LEAs.