Govt working on citizen’s centric police reforms

Islamabad: National Police Bureau (NPB) is working on developing and introducing citizen centric police reforms to bridge the trust deficit between police and the community, while chairing the meeting of Senior Police leadership from all the provinces to review the status of implementation of the recommendations of the Police Reforms Committee, said Dr. Ehsan Sadiq, Director General, National Police Bureau.

The said committee was notified by the orders of Supreme Court of Pakistan. In meeting, additional reforms which can improve police performance in key functional areas of policing were discussed. Addressing the participants of the meeting, Dr. Ehsan Sadiq, DG NPB highlighted the fact that a number of legal and policy reforms have already been introduced along with enhanced budgetary allocations in the provinces, therefore additional reforms are required. He also acknowledged the fact that initiatives like Help Desk, Khidmat Markaz, emergency response and IT based management systems have improved the working of police department. However, citizens’ complaints pertaining to non-registration of FIRs, ineffective investigation processes, non-professionalism and corruption still largely persists.

Dr. Ehsan Sadiq, DG NPB also endorsed the fact that due to lack of effective coordination between different components of criminal justice system and legal deficiencies, the conviction rate in serious crimes is very low. He also stressed upon the need of Citizen’s satisfaction approach in policing rather than statistics-based approach.

There was consensus among the participants of the meeting for the need of technology based and citizen’s centric police reforms along with the high need for upgrading the accountability mechanism and rationalization of career planning of Police Service. The participants also appreciated the important role of National Police Bureau as an umbrella organisation for all police organisations in Pakistan.