The police reforms Pakistan desperately needs

Saiyan0321

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The police reforms Pakistan desperately needs
This tragic, terrible, horrific case has opened up a very narrow window in which something can change



On September 10th, outrage erupted on social media across Pakistan in response to the tragic atrocity which took place a day earlier: the gang-rape of a woman on the Lahore motorway in front of her children. The mother and her kids had been stranded on the motorway past midnight and had been seeking assistance. In the days since, the deeper fissures of Pakistan’s polarised social discourse were exposed, as they always are in times of crisis. It is instructive for the purpose of this article to briefly linger over what the different camps are.

The biggest and perhaps most irreconcilable split is between those who have taken to lay blame on the woman for exposing herself to such a vulnerability and those who are horrified at such victim-blaming. These two camps are fairly neatly divided along demographic lines, with many religious clerics expressing tacit support for – or silent approval of – the former camp, and civil society members being near unanimous in their support for the latter. Insofar as the government itself is concerned, the situation is murkier.

While many politicians have jumped on the chance to condemn the incident and all forms of victim-blaming, many have chosen to take a somewhat strange ostensibly ‘middle-ground’ approach which is something to the effect of: ‘the rapists should be held to account, but the woman should also have been more careful.’ Naturally, this stance, espoused by many in the political mainstream has been castigated as victim-blaming disguised with a thin veneer of apparent objectivity.

Amongst those who rightly condemn victim-blaming, there is a further split: in days since a sub-group has very vocally espoused the hashtag #hangtherapists, which has garnered significant support on social media. Others in this camp have expressed caution with this approach, arguing that this only perpetuates a cycle of violence and prevents Pakistani society from interrogating the more structural problems which lead to rape being so pervasive in Pakistan.

Within this last sub-group is a further split about how best to pursue institutional and structural reform. Some have argued that the police officers who took more than 90 minutes to respond to a distress call should be held liable through some iteration of criminal negligence. Others have implored the government to instate sensitivity and rapid-response training as obligatory for all police officers. Most agree that CCPO Umar Shaikh should resign for his victim-blaming comments and be replaced by either female leadership or those who are more empathetic to the concerns of women.

Going over this general lay of the land of Pakistan’s political discourse is crucial; it demonstrates that with this level of disagreement on the most profound issues very little will be done to make sure that something like this never happens again. Even if the rapists are hanged or imprisoned, and the CCPO in question is promoted or fired, these micro-decisions will have a negligible impact on the safety of women in Pakistan’s public spaces. And yet more structural reform such as sensitivity training or education has attracted the scorn of Pakistan’s more conservative quarters, and is likely to be unworkable in any case: even if you have empathy towards the plight of a woman in any given incident, your sense of fraternity to your fellow police officers is going to make it very unlikely that you take decisive action.

Clearly, Pakistan right now is in search of reform that occurs upstream of all of these issues, can be accepted by the majority of people in a very polarised environment, and sidesteps problems of internal accountability.

There is one such reform which has revolutionised policing in other parts of the world. The Pakistan police and all its constituent departments must become such that we can always hear and see what they do and don’t do.

For starters, the audio of every single call to the police helpline(s) must be recorded and stored, and easily accessible to those who wish to access them through the appropriate channels. On some level, this will require a universal helpline instead of different numbers for different departments, as is common in many other countries. Secondly, a significant number of police officers on duty must wear body cameras when they respond to calls. While this is unlikely to be instated nationwide in the short term, a pilot programme in the major cities is definitely feasible. As with the audio recordings, the video from these cameras must be recorded and stored for anyone in the public sphere to access and examine.

These two simple reforms – being able to hear and see what our police officers do on the job – are likely to revolutionise policing in Pakistan. Crucially, such a reform doesn’t depend on looking at written reports written by police officers for the sake of other police officers. Seeing and hearing is believing.

Perhaps most importantly, this reform is likely to get mass nationwide support, because its implications lie outside the specific motorway case, or even the general epidemic of female insecurity in Pakistan. Over the past decade, Pakistanis on all sides of the political spectrum have been horrified by police actions of all kinds, such as extrajudicial killings, extortion and blackmail, protection of VIP persons and creating a general atmosphere of fear and insecurity. Hence even those who do not necessarily agree with the particular opinions of the civil society on this case or the position of women in Pakistan en masse are likely to voice their near unanimous support for such a reform.

Pakistan right now is deeply divided. And yet this tragic, terrible, horrific case has opened up a very narrow window of opportunity in which something can change. To compel our police officers to be seen and heard at all times when we ask for their help is and must be the first step towards change.

 

VCheng

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Before we consider the reforms needed, let us start at the basic question: What is the primary role of the police in Pakistan? Is it to "protect and serve" the people, or is it to enforce law and order according to the demands of the government in power at the moment? Lip service aside, the answer to this blunt question needs to be compatible with the real life interactions we see everyday in Pakistan.
 

Saiyan0321

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Before we consider the reforms needed, let us start at the basic question: What is the primary role of the police in Pakistan? Is it to "protect and serve" the people, or is it to enforce law and order according to the demands of the government in power at the moment? Lip service aside, the answer to this blunt question needs to be compatible with the real life interactions we see everyday in Pakistan.
short answer; it is NOT protect and serve because the police is anything but protect and serve. I see this enough everyday and nobody expects them to be protect and serve. Where police comes one expects to be looted even more
 

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short answer; it is NOT protect and serve because the police is anything but protect and serve. I see this enough everyday and nobody expects them to be protect and serve. Where police comes one expects to be looted even more

Given that reality, why is it that the nature of policing has not really changed in all the decades since independence? I do not mean to be callous, but it will take a lot more than this one incident to make the government really change the use of police as a force to carry out its edicts to remain in power. Quite simply, the government - regardless of the party or uniform in power - cannot afford to pay the price, literally and figuratively, to make this change, reforms or no reforms.
 

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Given that reality, why is it that the nature of policing has not really changed in all the decades since independence? I do not mean to be callous, but it will take a lot more than this one incident to make the government really change the use of police as a force to carry out its edicts to remain in power. Quite simply, the government - regardless of the party or uniform in power - cannot afford to pay the price, literally and figuratively, to make this change, reforms or no reforms.

Well its 10:16 pm here so i will be about to sleep but let me tell you about police. I live in Sheikhupura, district center, courts are a stone throw away, and about 1 min walk away are not one but two major police stations Thana A division and B division since the city is divided into two as left and right so both of these are face to face and are 1 min walk from my home.

Since march 2020 this area of 1 km radius where we have the admin houses of DCO and everybody else as well. Right near the park 2 km away at most from my house, right here since march 2020 robberies have been happening. They robbed the lower section of the house 7 places away and then another on the right and then another and another and about couple of months ago they broke into the house 3 houses away from mine and then broke into right next door neighbor. Everybody brought guns and the police became a warzone. The thieves got away but they kept firing at in the air for 20 minutes and everybody was out. No police came nor any investigation started.

Last night 20 gun fire happened 4 houses away from mine, turned out, same thing. Thieves were trying to break in, the men of the house got guns, they ran away and then a few fires in the air to scare the thieves away. No police. No nothing.. My place is most likely next and if i dont post for 2-3 weeks, then think that they got me. :rofl

This area despite its police vicinity has been dangerous and this is district center, courts, DCO office, TMO office, SP office are all 2 km radius. Heck we have 5 kinds of courts in our radius and the city jail as well/

You can check the SKP map

So this shoulkd give you idea of the police.
 

VCheng

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Well its 10:16 pm here so i will be about to sleep but let me tell you about police. I live in Sheikhupura, district center, courts are a stone throw away, and about 1 min walk away are not one but two major police stations Thana A division and B division since the city is divided into two as left and right so both of these are face to face and are 1 min walk from my home.

Since march 2020 this area of 1 km radius where we have the admin houses of DCO and everybody else as well. Right near the park 2 km away at most from my house, right here since march 2020 robberies have been happening. They robbed the lower section of the house 7 places away and then another on the right and then another and another and about couple of months ago they broke into the house 3 houses away from mine and then broke into right next door neighbor. Everybody brought guns and the police became a warzone. The thieves got away but they kept firing at in the air for 20 minutes and everybody was out. No police came nor any investigation started.

Last night 20 gun fire happened 4 houses away from mine, turned out, same thing. Thieves were trying to break in, the men of the house got guns, they ran away and then a few fires in the air to scare the thieves away. No police. No nothing.. My place is most likely next and if i dont post for 2-3 weeks, then think that they got me. :rofl

This area despite its police vicinity has been dangerous and this is district center, courts, DCO office, TMO office, SP office are all 2 km radius. Heck we have 5 kinds of courts in our radius and the city jail as well/

You can check the SKP map

So this shoulkd give you idea of the police.

So who cares if the people get robbed? Imagine the police response if the local MNA/MPA or Colonel Sahib is affected by such incidents.

(I know you may laugh at this, but I would say that the system is working exactly as designed. :D )
 

Saiyan0321

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So who cares if the people get robbed? Imagine the police response if the local MNA/MPA or Colonel Sahib is affected by such incidents.

Indeed
And who cares if there is not just a string of robbery but firing that make it look like the LOC. The neighborhood comes out with guns when there is such an incident and they shoot in the air but that doesn't happen every time. Many houses have been robbed especially those that couldnt raise a hue and cry like empty houses or men getting nabbed first by robbers. The shopkeeper 7 houses away sleeps above his store and his store and first floor was robbed and all he could do was lock him and his family on the second floor and call the neighbors. The police didn't bother showing up.
 

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Indeed
And who cares if there is not just a string of robbery but firing that make it look like the LOC. The neighborhood comes out with guns when there is such an incident and they shoot in the air but that doesn't happen every time. Many houses have been robbed especially those that couldnt raise a hue and cry like empty houses or men getting nabbed first by robbers. The shopkeeper 7 houses away sleeps above his store and his store and first floor was robbed and all he could do was lock him and his family on the second floor and call the neighbors. The police didn't bother showing up.

I would be willing to wager that as long as the police get their cut, the robbers will not die in a police muqabla. A cozy arrangement, one could say.
 

Saiyan0321

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I would be willing to wager that as long as the police get their cut, the robbers will not die in a police muqabla. A cozy arrangement, one could say.

Whose existence I have heard from the horses mouth itself and of course the excuses how the under waged police and the poor robbers all have their hands tied due to poverty.
 

VCheng

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Whose existence I have heard from the horses mouth itself and of course the excuses how the under waged police and the poor robbers all have their hands tied due to poverty.

Now do you see that I have enough white hair on my head - albeit rapidly thinning - to give me the experience to say that the Pakistani system is working as designed. To add to your horse's information, I can tell you that the distribution of such funds generated from the police "share" of transportation, drugs, prostitution, robbery and other similar pursuits goes nearly all the way to the top, except in Zardari's case, it went all the way to the top.
 

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