Police Stations Monitor Report: To register an FIR, bring your own pen and paper

Access to information, people-friendly policing largely absent.

ISLAMABAD:

More than 25 per cent of police stations did not have the necessary stationery to register a first information report (FIR), while at 14 per cent of the monitored stations, the moharrar asked people to bring their own stationery.

This is stated in the quarterly review of police stations, issued on Thursday, by Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Police Stations Monitor Report .

The report said that more than a quarter of the station house officers were unaware of the Access to Information Policy, which provides citizens with the right to access copies of challans submitted in the courts and the FIRs.

Similarly, more than a quarter of the police stations in Punjab and Sindh are still unaware of the access to information policy adopted in the provinces in 2007. The provincial governments of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan are yet to agree on how to provide citizens with this fundamental right.

“Punjab and Sindh adopted the policy in 2007, but it will be effective only when it is implemented,” said the report.

It said that at 30 per cent of the police stations monitored in Punjab, 28 per cent of those in Sindh, the SHOs were unaware of the policy. Moreover, at more than 27 per cent stations in Punjab and 35 per cent in Sindh, the copy of this policy was unavailable .

The report noted the severe understaffing at police stations in Sindh. “Out of the 3,111 posts sanctioned for the male staff, only 1,993 were occupied,” said the report.

Meanwhile, on the misuse of authority and lack of responsibility, the report said that policemen at 12 per cent of the monitored stations were observed turning people away from the gate.

“People complained that the policemen demanded monetary and nonmonetary benefits for the registration of FIRs,” said the report, claiming that this trend was observed at 14 per cent of the police stations monitored.

Furthermore, at 18 per cent of the monitored police stations, “people complained that the investigation officers demanded logistical support for probing a registered case.”

The report appreciated that in almost all the police stations where the SHOs were present when the observers visited, they not only allowed observation but also spoke freely with FAFEN staff.

The situation was much better regarding transparency of FIRs, as 97 per cent of police stations monitored in Punjab and 67 per cent in Sindh were sharing information with the public.

In 88 per cent of the monitored police stations, officials were facilitating people in the registration of FIRs, according to the report.

FAFEN monitored 152 police stations across the four provinces and Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) during April-June 2011. Of these police stations, 81 are in Punjab, 40 Sindh, 23 in K-P, seven Balochistan and one in ICT.



Published in The Express Tribune, September 24^th, 2011.