‘Court police need reforms’

SP says all is not well at judicial lockups

KARACHI:

Departmental inquiries of all officers and personnel have been started in which scrutiny will also be carried out. Vehicles carrying prisoners will be monitored through new state-of-the-art technology.

There is no provision in the law for transporting prisoners in private cars. This was stated by SP Court Abid Qaimkhani while talking to The Express Tribune.

Talking to The Express Tribune, he said that court police is a critical and sensitive unit, but the situation is the opposite here. With this in mind, significant reforms are being initiated in the court police.

After the escape of high-profile prisoner Zohaib Qureshi, departmental inquiries have been started for the first time in this regard.

Complaints of police officers providing mobile phones to detainees during court appearances are common. Strict legal action will be taken against them in case of non-compliance.

Prisoners commute from Karachi jails to various courts, and many prisoners continue to be transferred inside Sindh.

Qaimkhani said that new and modern technology will now be used in court police in response to a question. If required, a particular app for court police will be developed by IT experts of Sindh Police through which all the officers will be in touch with each other, and the movement of the vehicles (prison vans) carrying the prisoners will be closely monitored.

One purpose of this is to keep them informed, while the other is to provide an immediate response to the court police wherever they need security.

After taking charge, the SP court police said that he also visited the lockup set up in the city court, and its condition was not good and ensured that the lockup security would also be enhanced.

Police under scrutiny

Testing the professionalism of officers and personnel in Karachi Police is in progress. The officers and personnel performing duties in the court are also being closely monitored.

Departmental action will be taken against personnel who facilitate prisoners. Additional IG Karachi has appointed a senior police officer for inquiry against the officials involved in facilitating convicts, and action will be taken upon receiving the inquiry report.

The accountability process is underway in Karachi Police, and strict departmental and legal action is being taken against those found guilty.

n order to identify and catch ‘black sheep’, in the department, Karachi police have initiated scrutiny of its officials and personnel. According to high ups, cops from inspector to constable will undergo the Crime Record Office (CRO) tests to find the policemen involved in suspicious activities.

The move has been taken after police officers and constables were found involved in illegal activities in the recent past. The spokesperson added that legal and departmental action would be taken against the policemen found involved in the illegal activities.

The reports of involvement of policemen in illegal activities in Karachi had been reported in Karachi and in one recent incident, three policemen were suspended and arrested after they allegedly killed the factory worker in a fake encounter in Karachi’s Mehran Town. A police team had initially claimed to have killed a suspected criminal during crossfire, but when Wasif’s family reached the hospital, they claimed he was innocent and had been killed in a fake police encounter.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 4^th, 2022.