Special desks for women now defunct

Lack of interest by police, lack of female officers has resulted in dedicated complaint cells becoming inoperational

PESHAWAR:

Despite waiting for over two hours at the Chamkani Police Station, a neighbourhood in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s (K-P) capital, Rukhsana Bibi could not get a domestic violence complaint, which involved her daughter, registered at the station’s special desk for women, transgender individuals, and senior citizens.

Rukhsana’s plight is a common one for those trying to seek the police’s intervention by using the special desks, which were set up back in 2021 by the provincial government at a cost of millions of rupees.

For instance, Abida Bibi, who went to a similar special desk set up at the Hayatabad Police Station, in the evening, to register a complaint about not getting her share in her inheritance, was rudely told by the police staff that the desk only operates until 2 in the afternoon. “Therefore, I had to deal with the male policemen to get my complaint filed. However, it has now been 25 days and they are yet to make any progress,” lamented Abida while talking to The Express Tribune.

Similarly, the mother of Sana, whose daughter was murdered on the Ring Road in Peshawar 2 years ago, has been visiting the Shahpur Police Station’s special desk regularly but according to her no one takes her plea seriously. “I am a woman and the police view me as weak, therefore they are suppressing my voice instead of helping me,” she said, adding that the special desks were a sham.

According to information received from police sources by the Express Tribune the special desks which were set up for facilitating women, transgender individuals, and senior citizens across the province have become dysfunctional over the past 7 months due the lack of interest of K-P’s police department and a glaring lack of female police officers.

Data obtained by sources within the provincial capital’s police force further highlights the lack of female police officers. To illustrate: Peshawar which is a city of more than 4.7 million people, has only 95 female police officers, only 15 of whom are assigned to police stations.

In the backdrop of such measly numbers of women officers assigned to police stations, the failure of special desks is not unfathomable. Therefore, Arzoo, the President of the Transgender Association in Peshawar, also termed the special desks as a failure and a pipe dream for the transgender community and women in general. “The police have failed to address our concerns for a long time and now have reneged on their promise to facilitate us via the special desks,” regretted Arzoo.

Inspector General of Police (IGP) for K-P, Akhtar Hayat Khan, when asked about the failure of the special desks for women and transgender, replied that the desks were still functional in major districts of the province including Peshawar, Mardan, and Mansehra. “We believe in an inclusive police force and have appointed more female officers to deal with the complaints of women and transgender individuals across the province. We have even made a female police officer the Head of District Battagram,” informed the IG. When pointed out about the complaints of women and transgender population with regards to the special desks, the IG stated: “We are dealing with the problems of women and transgenders on a priority basis.”

 

Published in The Express Tribune, October 2^nd, 2023.