Consultative meeting: Journalists, retired cop demand stronger laws for police

Speakers cite examples from Turkey, India to make a point.

KARACHI: A number of journalists and a retired police officer came together for a consultative meeting on Monday to demand stronger laws for the police force.

They want to make the department accountable, effective and apolitical. The meeting 'Striving for Rule of Law: Policing and Role of Media' was organised by the Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS) and Karachi Press Club on Monday.



Journalist Qaisar Mahmood, who is the consultant for the CRSS, explained that the aim of the event was to express journalists’ concerns about the police and to discuss suggestions on improvements in the police. Perhaps the event would have been more effective if other policemen, apart from former CCPO Tariq Jameel, had showed up.

While there was a dire need for stronger laws for the police to operate, said Jameel as the first speaker, there was no need for a new legislation as the Police Order of 2002 was an absolute law, which was aimed to reform the police. "Unfortunately, the Police Order 2002 could not be enforced. It should be revived and implemented."

Jameel said that the when the ordinance was introduced, it faced a lot of opposition from political parties and bureaucrats. Highlighting its major clauses, he said that the police order strongly dealt on how to make police effective, accountable and was aimed to de-politicise it. "The legislation can also hold police officers responsible for not performing their duties and they could be penalised for failing to register FIRs."

Journalist Mazhar Abbas spoke on the two problems which the Sindh Police are currently facing. "The first issue is that the police are highly politicised and only those SHOs who can please their masters are appointed."

The second issue that Abbas sees is the police are not prepared to deal with terrorism and militancy. The police are the closest link to people at the grassroots level, he pointed out.

A senior editor of Nai Baat newspaper, Saeed Khawar called to abolish the current police department. "The system should be abolished and a new dedicated force should be brought to the fore."

"Turkey did not reform its police but instead introduced a new police force, who went on to arrest 160 dictators," he said. When police officers are on duty, they claim that they are helpless to bring any change and speak of their limitations, he said. "And once they retire, they start speaking the truth, which is off no use."

Educated officers should be brought forward in the police department and only those constables should be hired who are graduates, he suggested.

Professor Tauseef Ahmed of the Federal Urdu University said the police in the country have never been allowed to act independently, and now the question is how to develop it, and improve its role.

India and Pakistan started with the same police force but the neighbouring country went on to form the Central Bureau of Investigation, which is an exemplary model, he added.

Journalist Moosa Kaleem said to revive the police forces facilities should be provided to them, and to make it accountable, there should be a muhtasib at the DSP level, if not at every police station.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 25^th, 2014.