Sloppy police work

All too often the police in Pakistan are seen as part of the problem rather than part of the solution. Many forces nationally have become corrupt and politicised. Others are poorly equipped and trained and there are anecdotal reports of low morale from across the country. Complaints against the police are rarely investigated either transparently or indeed at all. It might have been expected that the police would attend to high-profile cases with greater diligence than run-of-the-mill robberies or phone thefts, but if the recent example of the Sindh force is anything to go by even that cannot be regarded as a given.

It will be recalled that Awais Ali Shah, who is son of the Sindh High Court chief justice, has been kidnapped. It is a considerable understatement to say that the police have been less than keen in their efforts to trace the kidnappers or their victim; and the Supreme Court recently expressed its extreme displeasure at the current state of the inquiry — which is effectively going nowhere. The bench observed that the responsible SHO did not visit the scene of the crime and casually passed the responsibility for the investigation to intelligence agencies, a responsibility they do not have in this instance. In unusually strong language the bench was also critical of former SSP-South Dr Farooq Ahmed telling him that he did not deserve to remain in police uniform due to negligence on his part. The police still appear clueless as to the fate or possible location of Awais, though there are rumours aplenty that we will not give any legitimacy to by repeating here. Any disciplinary action that will be taken against those so lax in their duty will be quickly reversed, and they will be back on duty within days or weeks, political strings having been pulled. An innocent man going about his lawful business has been kidnapped, for ransom or for political reasons we know not but it could be either or both. Once again the police are exposed as truly part of the problem, which is only capable of solution with radical indeed heroic — surgery.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 9^th, 2016.

Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.