Women naib moharrars appointed in Rawalpindi

Despite IGP’s orders all Pindi police stations still have men as SHOs

ISLAMABAD: The Rawalpindi police have appointed women naib-moharrars at seven police stations in line with the recent initiatives undertaken by the Punjab police to give women officers an increased role in direct operational policing.

Former Punjab police inspector general Kaleem Imam — who was appointed as the inspector general of Sindh police late last week — had recently directed heads of police in all 36 districts of the province to appoint women inspectors and sub-inspector as SHOs and women assistant sub-inspectors and head constables as moharrars at police stations. On Wednesday, the Rawalpindi police announced that women officials had been appointed as naib-moharrars at seven police stations in the district, as per directives of the inspector general.

The head constable (HC) had been appointed as naib-moharrar at the Gujjar Khan police station, HC Muniba Begum at RA Bazaar police station, HC Tayyaba Noor at New Town police station, HC Anam Naseeb at the Waris Khan police station, Kishwar Naz at the Ratta Amral police station, Mehwashunisa at the Sadiqabad police station and Humaira Nawaz has been made the naib-moharrar of the Chauntra police station.

The seven women appointed as naib-moharrars will assist their head moharrrs, all of whom are men.

“They would perform all the duties and tasks in the moharrar office,” a police spokesperson said. Police said initially women naib-moharrars had been appointed at the seven precincts, and more women could be assigned key roles in other police stations in the future.

Though the IGP had directed for the appointment of women SHOs and head moharars, no such step has been taken by the Rawalpindi police so far.

The station house officer (SHO) is the overall officer in-charge of policing an area. The head moharrar, usually an official of head constable rank, is the clerk in-charge and custodian of a police station and responsible for maintaining all sorts of records at the precinct.

There are 27 police stations in the Rawalpindi district and, except for the Women’s Police Station, no station is headed by a woman. There is often resentment among female officers that they are not assigned field or operational responsibilities which also impacts their promotion prospects. 

Published in The Express Tribune, September 13^th, 2018.