Better policing: Human rights chapters added to Sindh Police curriculum

US Assistant Secretary of State joins Sindh IG to mark completion of training module

KARACHI: With new curriculum added to the Sindh Police training manual, the authorities hope the law enforcers in the province will be more considerate of human rights.

A ceremony was held on Tuesday to mark the completion of the new human rights police training module, which will be used to train new recruits in Sindh Police. US assistant secretary of state William R Brownfield, who is also the head of the US Department of State's Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL), was present along with Sindh IG Ghulam Hyder Jamali.

DIG South Abdul Khalique Shaikh, who led the Sindh Curriculum Development Team, explained that they have arranged eight curriculum developers and 10 modules that include the training of basic investigation, forensic investigation and human rights. "In order to seek promotion, every officer has to undergo these training courses," he said.



The Sindh Police have eight training institutions and the duration of the each training course is a minimum of six months, he added. "The training modules are very indigenously designed," claimed the DIG South. "The modules are not only based on criminological and sociological perspectives but the flaws on ground that the police department comes across while dealing with cases."

The co-author of the book and the former secretary general of Amnesty International Pakistan, Muhammad Iqbal Detho, called this book a gift to the Sindh Police. He urged to not only adopt this book as a mere curriculum but to bring it in the policing practice.

Niaz Ahmed Siddiqui, who wrote the training module, spoke about how the police impose their authority over the people instead of serving them. "Unlawful arrests, extra-judicial killings and enforced disappearance are a stain on the performance of the Sindh police," he said. "The training module has been developed to wash this stain."

The US' INL gave $500 million for the curriculum development programme over the last 12 years, said Ambassador Brownfield.

"As many as 1,500 officials have been trained and helped in rebuilding police stations destroyed in terrorist attacks," said Brownfield.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 10^th, 2014.