Who’s afraid of police reform?

Let the police become strong enough, efficient enough and motivated enough to fight and win this war


Fahd Husain February 28, 2015
The writer is Executive Director News, Express News. He tweets @fahdhusain fahd.husain@tribune.com.pk

The suicide bomber almost got inside the gate. A nightmare could have unfolded. Today shattered windows, blackened walls and twisted heaps of metal tell the tale of violence that ensued here on a busy Lahore road in front of the main Police Lines.

No surprise then that the imposing gate of the Lines is guarded by a heavy contingent of policemen. These men are truly the frontline warriors in this existential war that we have recently started to take seriously. Not their officers, not their political bosses, and certainly not the bureaucrats who sit behind imposing desks in barricaded secretariats sipping whipped sugary coffee with delicately thin sandwiches served by liveried waiters. No, none of these grandees truly know what it means to fight the fight we fight today. It is these men in uniform — both the police and armed forces — who stand on the streets, on the checkpoints, at the gates and outside key installations, who face real danger and often pay the ultimate price.

You cannot but help admire them. It was one of their colleagues who checked the suicide bomber that morning, and fell victim to the blast. He was about to retire from service. His family — like that of thousands others whose blood is lubricating our brittle, and fickle, national resolve — is scarred forever, and ever.

We do not pay these men much. Is it too much to honour them?

The performance of the police is now under acute focus since the unfolding of the National Action Plan. Look at the police in every province and you see the reflection of decades of wrong priorities, selfish agendas and near-absence of reform. Today the police is in shambles because ruler after ruler has ravaged and pillaged this institution for narrow interests. Devoid of resources and training, and lacking in basic professionalism and true autonomy, the police force today is reminder of what happens when puny men are allowed to worm their way into large public offices.

This force cannot take on the awesome task of fighting a monster that has over the decades grown fat on official patronage and public sympathies. But the war has come looking for this ill-trained, ill-equipped and ill-prepared police. Fight it must, like all frontline warriors do.

So as the imposing gates open and I catch the first glimpse of the Police Lines where these men are being prepared to fight the ultimate fight, I get a sense that times are finally catching up with this colonial era force. I have been told by the officer high command of the Punjab police that I will meet those who are indeed symbolising this renewed effort to modernise the force.

Did someone say modernise? The tug of war over police reform is as old as the Ice Age. Every government has mouthed these pious intentions, commissioned reports, and promised an end to the infamous thana culture. Every government has singularly failed to do this. Reports aplenty, action nil. In 2015, we still beat the truth out of suspects. What gives?

Imran Khan is right when he says Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) is the only province where the police are free of political interference. I say this not from personal experience, let me confess, but from anecdotal evidence that pours in from various sources. The Inspector General of the K-P Police, Nasir Durrani, is reputed to be a competent professional who is attempting genuine reform in the force under his command. If he is succeeding, one major reason is that elected representatives are not yapping at his heels. In contrast, the Punjab police carry on their shoulders a heavy burden of its less than scintillating reputation. The massacre of Model Town still casts a deep haunting shadow over the force and all those who are responsible for it.

But something is happening in Punjab. The hyper chief minister perhaps, has realised that if he doesn’t modernise and reform the police, Imran Khan will trump him and his party with a remodelled force in his province. Either it’s this, or a recognition that concrete wonders are not a replacement for a truly service-oriented governance — but either way, the police are now finally getting the attention they deserves.

Talk to a government functionary and he (or she) will rattle of a well-rehearsed list of achievements so far. But between flowery rhetoric, towering claims and glitzy PowerPoint presentations by glib whizz-kids, there is the gradual pace of reality that collides with public demands in unexpected ways. Here, at the Police Lines, I’m ushered into a spacious hall filled with smartly-turned out policemen — more than a hundred strong — sitting quietly with military-style discipline. Dr Haider Ashraf is the DIG Operations here who is displaying uncanny motivation for reform. He’s accompanied by SP Omar Virk (who trained these men here) and his colleague SP Omer Saeed. These men here, the officers tell me, are the face of reform. They are the ones who will change the dreaded thana culture once and for all.

And how? These are the new Admin Officers in every thana of Lahore. Selected from within the force for their better educational credentials, these men are now responsible for all public dealing in thanas. In other words, their job is to address every public complaint, and assist and guide everyone who comes to the thana. They are supposed to be courteous, humane, sympathetic and efficient. They are the soft face of the police, and they are meant to ensure that anyone who approaches the thana for anything is served properly, professionally and efficiently. “We consider every single complainant as a VIP,” one of these officers tells me confidently. Another one stands up, tells me a story of how he helped an old woman find her son, then complains: “You look at Bollywood and Hollwood movies and their police is always shown as a hero, but in Pakistan we are always the villain … you media should please help change improve our image in the eyes of the public.”

That’s a tall order. Yes, the media does need to be a little less sceptical of the force, and more supportive of these men in these trying time, but ultimately everything boils down to a simple reality: the rulers must mean what they say.

Translation: keep your police out of your politics; let the professionals do their work; and put your money where your mouth is. Let the police become strong enough, efficient enough and motivated enough to fight and win this war with the armed forces, so that we, the people, can truly honour them for their service to this nation.

Tall order indeed. But do we have a choice any more?

Published in The Express Tribune, March 1st, 2015.

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COMMENTS (8)

Parvez | 9 years ago | Reply Second attempt : That was informative. It does not take much to understand that depoliticizing the police is an absolute must if progress is to made. The fact that Punjab is doing it because KPK is doing is is a sad reflection of the priorities of our leaders.....but in any case, something is better than nothing.
Salim Jan | 9 years ago | Reply sir,the most corrupt,inefficient and overtly and overly policised police force is that of Sindh-Karachi.It needs drastic reforms.They are glove and hand with all types of social criminals and law-breakers.
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