‘LEAs may be wrong but they are the reason you sleep soundly at night’

Speakers at the consultative meeting criticise, praise and suggest reforms for law enforcers.

KARACHI:

The policing system, currently being enforced in Sindh is based on the Police Act 1861. Journalist Imtiaz Gul hates the law. He calls it “a tool introduced by the British to intimidate the citizens at the time.”

Gul was speaking at a seminar, titled ‘Policing - Challenges and Solutions’, organised by the Centre for Research and Security Studies, in collaboration with the GIZ, at Avari Towers on Saturday. The aim was to suggest reforms for the policing system in Sindh: to scrutinise and suggest changes to the current one and make it better. Gul looked like he meant business when he started the seminar by saying that the police were public servants and needed to be reminded that.

The succeeding speaker, MPA Syed Hafeezuddin of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, carried on where Gul had left off. Hafeezuddin spoke of the intimidation felt by citizens in approaching the police for help. For him, the major problems were corrupt officers and political interference.

According to Hafeezuddin, corruption is rampant in every government department in Sindh. In the police, the motto is: “Paisa do, thaana lo [Pay money, get deployed at a police station].”



The next speaker, Training DIG Azhar Rashid, looked like he had had enough of the criticism. Rashid politely, but firmly, rebuked the speakers for laying the entire blame on the police department. “You [civil society] take every opportunity to lambast the police,” he said. “Yes, I admit we are wrong, but you must admit you are too.” Rashid criticised the participants for not admitting that it was the people who did not want to follow the rules. “Tomorrow if the officer at the licence department says he will not accept bribes, you will try to use a senior official’s influence to do the dirty work.”

He went on to say that the police were a symptom of the deceased society that we had become. “You [civil society members] beat the drums of democracy but in truth, you all want to be treated as royalty.”

Ahmed Chinoy, the chief of the Citizens-Police Liaison Committee (CPLC), looked like he had come prepared with statistics. He started by throwing numbers at the participants and the numbers were indeed worrying. According to Chinoy, the CPLC receives almost 6,000 calls for help every day. Around 80 of the complaints are of mobile snatching. Another 80 are extortion-related. “These figures represent only 10 per cent of the crimes taking place in the city,” he explained.

A major problem with the department, recognised by Chinoy, was the fact that officials were not allowed to stay in one police station for them to actually affect some change. “In 2012, the average time an SHO was deployed at a police station was 25 to 27 days.”

For Chinoy, the answer to fixing the police system lay in providing facilities to the low-ranking officials. He reasoned that the low-ranking personnel, who comprised 90 per cent of the police force, live sorry lives. “They have no health facilities, no housing, no education for their children,” he said. “How can they focus on their jobs in such conditions?”

His words were echoed by the next speaker, former IG Niaz Siddiqui. He started off by quoting articles from the Constitution of Pakistan that guaranteed basic rights and security of life and property for its citizens. “The police are present to ensure the law is upheld, not break it and mould it for their own purpose,” he said. “They have no right to take anyone’s life.”

He agreed with Chinoy on the need to provide better facilities to the department, adding that the investigation wing needed urgent attention. “Criminals are let go because of poor prosecution or poor investigations of their crimes.”

On the other hand, Siddiqui praised the Sindh police’s efforts in the fight against terrorists, saying that the personnel had fought with the least resources and laid down the most lives. There are black sheep within every department, but remember, “The police stay awake so you may sleep soundly at night.”

Published in The Express Tribune, April 27^th, 2014.