The salaries and allowances of police personnel must be increased and they must be provided with adequate resources
KARACHI: The police are the internal defence force of a country. It’s a civilian force responsible for maintaining law and order. Since Pakistan is currently fighting a war against terror internally, the role of the police has become even more important. However, lots of questions arise over whether our police is capable of maintaining peace in the country. Let’s be honest. While our police has played a significant role in fighting terror, a far more prominent role is expected of them.
Our police have been a victim of terror themselves. Recently, seven policemen were martyred in Karachi while on duty protecting polio workers. This is not the first incident of its kind. Such attacks have been occurring frequently. We have to analyse what the problem is in our policing system. We cannot allow the police to continue functioning in this way. Some of the problems in the police include financial corruption, moral corruption, a lack of training and education, political interference, and lack of resources and so on. These issues, although old, remain unresolved.
Education is one important solution. There must be sound technical qualification requirements for those who wish to join the police force. Training standards must improve. For this, we can seek help of the army. I believe the most important thing is an overhaul of the old system. For this, we must establish an institute or academy like the PMA Kakul, administered by the federal government under the Ministry of Defence. This state-of-the-art academy will have professional training courses, and both long- and short-term training staff. Any province which wishes to hire policemen must apply to the federal government for the required vacancy. For example, if the Sindh government wishes to hire 500 policemen, it must file a request with the Ministry of Defence to announce the vacancy and date of the entrance test. The candidate who passes the different tests will be called up for training in the academy. This exercise may be time-consuming, but it will improve the standard of the police. Concludingly, the salaries and allowances of police personnel must be increased to motivate them and they must be provided with adequate resources.
Ahmed Sheraz
Published in The Express Tribune, April 28th, 2016.
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