Katcha police force

Sindh’s plans to raise a ‘katcha’ police force should concern anyone who has ever had a bad interaction with ‘pakka’ police officials, especially in rural areas. While the new force of about 5,000 officials will supposedly have a more limited mandate, we must note that they would still be armed. Sindh’s inspector general, at a recent presser, said the katcha force would be dedicated to fighting criminal gangs, mostly along the banks of the Indus River in the north of the province. This requires both guns and training, and it remains to be seen what kind of training is provided.

The alternative is recruitment from other provincial police forces since the so-called katcha area is mostly along the Punjab and Balochistan borders, but this could have severe consequences on the other two provinces as they would be deprived of trained police officials. The IG actually did inadvertently summarise the biggest problems with the proposed force. He said the criminal justice system — including the police, prosecutors and judges — had failed miserably, but instead of reforming the existing structures to improve standards and performance, the government is expanding the same police force with even less qualified staff. Even beyond the katcha force, Sindh plans to hire another 2,000 assistant sub-inspectors to help with “focusing on specialisation in investigation”.

The quality of recruitment may also be questioned when we consider the depth of ties between policemen and gangs. Top cops have admitted the problem, and some 70 policemen were recently dismissed for having criminal ties. Now imagine how many crooked cops would be recruited if standards were lowered to quickly fill thousands of additional vacancies. While additional personnel and better weapons can be used to improve policing, better approaches would be reforms and improved training to enhance the quality of existing resources. Meanwhile, social uplift in crime-ridden areas has been proven around the world to be the best way to reduce crime — end the sense of deprivation, and crime will become almost unnoticeable.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 5^th, 2023.

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