The Sikandar farce

On August 15, a lone gunman held Islamabad hostage for over five hours. In the wake of any such incident, a number of responses inevitably (and predictably) occur: ‘The PM is furious and orders an inquiry’; ‘the opposition castigates the government’s failure’; ‘policemen at check posts suspended’; and numerous analysts analyse it from every conceivable angle.

In any sane country, Zamarrud Khan should have been arrested for obstructing justice, but in Pakistan, he is being hailed as a hero. Sikandar should never have been allowed to move around brazenly. He was endangering the public. Within minutes of his firing into the air, he should have been ‘taken out’ by a sniper. The media and public should never have been permitted to be that close to the farce; but who dare take on the media in these times.

No less than the interior minister took immediate notice of the incident and instructed the police to be ‘careful’ and not ‘risk lives’. Does the SSP operations, the ranking officer present, dare make a ‘judgment call’ on his own or is his initiative stunted by the minister’s instructions? Bear in mind that ours is not the Metropolitan Police: a police force to which the British PM dare not issue instructions. Our police officials serve at the politicians’ pleasure — or do not serve at all.

The incident should never have been allowed to happen, I agree. But what will suspending policemen at the check posts achieve? Security will be tightened, commuters will suffer, but a couple of weeks or months later, security will become lax again. No one can possibly maintain that level of security alert forever. Perhaps the answer lies elsewhere. Let us take one step at a time. How did Sikandar get so far carrying such weapons? The counter questions are: are those manning check posts equipped with the technology to detect weapons? If not, can they search each vehicle that goes past? If not, why suspend poor police personnel? Why not equip them before berating them?

Having viewed this entire comical farce and aware of the fact that the police have the services of some trained snipers now, perhaps action is merited on three issues. Foremost, why did some sniper not take Sikandar out at the earliest? Secondly, who permitted Zamarrud Khan to assume the role of police and why did no one consider that Zamarrud endangered not just himself; an enraged deranged man could have reacted by killing anyone. And finally, when Sikandar was shot, who permitted police personnel to celebrate by firing into the air and why?

There are no satisfactory answers to these questions. Chaudhry Nisar might have sent the message in all innocence, but the consequences were probably disastrous. Zamarrud Khan is no ordinary politician. A larger than life figure, a philanthropist who loves children; how many of our ‘politicised’ policemen would dare deny him his moment of glory? And finally, our police force is not trained to endure prolonged periods of tension. Having been made to suffer five hours of tension, which they were aware they could have ended in minutes, who can blame them for firing in jubilation to release their pent up tension? Not I.

Then, what can be done? First, equip and train a more efficient police force. But that is merely a first step; a very important first step; but still just a first step. It is, perhaps, time to follow the example of the British; that of the force that polices the UK. Make the police independent of our political masters. They don’t need to be shackled by increasingly centralised political control. They need to be beyond the sphere of any political influence. When both these have been done; then our political masters may order inquiries into reasons of police failures.

If not, inquiries should question why these measures have not been taken. Don’t blame the police, blame yourselves. Only after all these reforms can the police educate the media on how not to endanger the public during crises.

Our political leaders lack the courage to do all this and, therefore, they continue to suspend policemen whom they have not equipped and inquire into police failures caused by political cowardice.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 31^st, 2013.

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