Police reforms – a distant dream
PHOTO: FILE
The ideal of reforms in Punjab Police remains a far cry from the situation on the ground. It seems like the successive police commanders on keys posts, especially Lahore capital city police officer (CCPO) and Punjab inspector general of police (IGP), lack a clear road map to achieve any meaningful changes in the department.
The regression within the force is such that even the top cops have run short of stunts they previously used in the name of police reforms.
Former CCPO Umer Shoib Sheikh relied very much on these stunts simply to make headlines. His successor, Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Ghulam Mehmood Dogar, although deviating from Sheikh’s policy, seems to have no better offer that could possibly lead towards achieving the goal of police reforms.
The current CCPO too, like his predecessor, only attempted to make headlines by launching a massive crackdown against a few suspects in the city on the basis of cases registered long ago.
This is true of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) as well. In previous tenures, PTI Chairman Imran Khan had sailed high tides of hope in sloganeering while in opposition. However, as over two years have passed since PTI came to power in Punjab, the ideal of police reforms remains a distant dream.
For the last two years, the government heavily relied on reshuffles within the police.
On a number of occasions, multiple officers, including the IGP, district police officers (DPOs), regional police officers (RPOs), SHOs and DSPs, were transferred one place to the other. The argument presented to the people was one of searching for the best and most competent team. The reshuffles were also done on the pretext of getting rid of corrupt elements.
A Punjab PTI representative had gone so far in defending the transfers that he said the PTI would go for even a thousand more such transfers if needed.
When the reshuffles did not work out, a shift towards aggressive policing to win some public sentiment was adopted. This was the time when Punjab witnessed a sudden surge in police encounters in major cities. The data of police encounters verified this aspect.
When this too did not work to curb crimes across the province, the government started looking for new stunts.
Former Lahore CCPO Sheikh manifested this by taking steps which seemed to have been popular within his circles rather than the introduction of reforms which would actually improve police performance to curb crimes.
None of his decisions taken in the name of police reforms could be justified under any anti-crime model or policing techniques.
On the other hand, the current CCPO Dogar opted not to continue any of his predecessor’s policies. However, he too, so far, does not appear to have any clear plan which could lead to police reforms. Rather, his changes so far are yet to bring any results to control street crimes and other offences.
Since he took charge, he either has been paying visits to police stations or conducting raids to take into custody the suspects who in the past had been involved in enmities.
As many as 200 people have been booked and arrested on his orders. Most of these cases were of petty disputes and the suspects will likely be released within days.
Prime Minister Imran Khan during his recent visit to Lahore appreciated Dogar for these steps. However, this is not likely to contribute even a penny in the way of police reforms.
Police reforms are not possible without addressing the key policing issues such as capacity building, modern infrastructure, legislation reforms, reforming hierarchical structure, investigations and human resource.
The betterment in all these aspects demands a lot of money as well as a plan and will to take strict action against crimes.
The government is falling short of all these objectives. It was not ready to spend as evident from figures of the development budget allocated for the department.
With such huge gaps, only those changes in pursuit of police reforms were possible that former CCPO Sheikh had proposed or even those that CCPO Dogar is implementing.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 18th, 2021.