Inefficiency, corruption smear police department

Islamabad: The overall performance of police has touched the lowest ebb with hardly any interest being shown by the government or by the department itself to arrest the rot first and then take steps to revive the actual spirit of policing.

It may sound harsh and sort of a sweeping statement but unfortunately this is an undeniable fact that the priorities of a vast majority of our ‘Police Service of Pakistan’ (PSP) officers have completely changed from policing to self projection and money minting.

Gone are the days when the corrupt or dishonest police officers used to get immediately spotted and marked and would be described as the ‘black sheep’ of the department by their own brethren in uniform.

Now are the days that if we find an honest and upright officer we immediately start eulogising him despite the fact that he (or she) are not doing anything extraordinary but only performing their duties with a noticeable level of honesty and dedication.

Similarly, the command has been ignoring their real responsibilities, preparing the lot of professional, dedicated, honest and responsible police officers to lead the force to the grassroots level and may eventually change the infamous and dreaded ‘thana culture’.

And amidst the prevailing environments, made murkier by the political confusion in the country, the inefficiency and corruption in the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) Police Department is going un-noticed. Simply, because the evils of corruption, nepotism, dishonesty and abuse of power have dug their claws too deep in our society.

With obvious political influence on the department the ‘check and balance system’ for monitoring the performance of officials and officers have faltered badly, eventually reflecting adversely on the crime control and maintenance of law and order situation in the federal capital.

It has been observed that some Station House Officers (SHOs), the Sub-Divisional Police Officers (SDPOs), the Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASPs) and the Superintendent of Police SPs) are not coming up to the set standards of efficiency in the performances of their duties.

The situation has created a disgruntled element in the force as they feel that they are not being awarded and rewarded for their good work while looking helplessly at their colleagues with shady and questionable service records being patronised because of political influence and clout they have mustered up.

There are some officers who simply don’t want to serve in the federal capital any longer and would feel too happy to be transferred to the Punjab or other provinces (except Balochistan). This element in the force has added to the inefficiency of Islamabad Police as well.

When Dr Sultan Azam Temuri took over the charge of the Islamabad Police as the Inspector General, it was anticipated that the things will turn around for betterment and a positive change will be induced in the force that would reflect positively on the crime control and maintenance of law and order situation in the federal capital.

However, these anticipations and expectations have been evaporating gradually. Being a seasoned officer of police service with a lot of experience and exposure, both at national as well as international level, it was expected that Dr Sultan Azam Temuri will induce a chance.

There are still high hopes pinned on him that he will change the prevailing ‘Thana Culture’, which has crept in the federal territory from Punjab and has become so rotten that to change it has become a slogan for the political parties who are openly promising to change this ‘thana culture’ in their rallies.

Surprisingly, while the politicians are promising that if elected to power they will change this ‘Thana Culture’, the department itself seems oblivious of the fact that they have been swallowed up by this evil and they really do need a change in their domain.

Conceded that it has taken decades of direct political intervention in the Police department affairs to change it into what it has turned into today. Also conceded that that this political intervention is not confined to the Police department all over the country but almost every department has been manipulated by the politicians for their own gains instead of serving the public and the state.

But the undeniable fact is that it is the police department which has lost its sanctity and prestige having become a tool in the hands of a few politicians instead of trying to act like an institution of the state which is meant for serving public and ensure their welfare and wellbeing.

However, at the same time we have seen individuals in the same police department who had refused to budge to the pressure mounted by the politicians and had left highly appreciable impressions by improving the performance, thus winning the hearts and minds of public.

We do realize that such a change cannot be induced overnight or even over a considerable period of time, counting in years. But what we expect is for the police bosses to see the reality and realize how compellingly essential it has become to take the right steps in the right direction, first to arrest the deterioration and then to eventually reach the goal.

We know that Dr Sultan Azam Temuri doesn’t carry a ‘magic wand’ that he will wave with a flourish and the things will change. We don’t expect him to turn the Islamabad Police into a model police force in the country overnight. But what pains us to note is that he has yet to take the right steps in the right direction to achieve what he has promised and what he is actually supposed to do as the leader of the Islamabad Police force.

On the contrary, a few directions he gave to the force only encouraged the corrupt and unscrupulous elements in the force to start abuse their powers with impunity. We have all the reasons to believe that he had issued those directions with all the good will behind those. But unfortunately the result is that the old culture of harassing poor public and extortion by patrolling police officials on the roads and in the streets is creeping back.

These incidents, occurrence of which is growing at an alarming rate are, very obviously, not reported anywhere. But we know that it is happening. Apparently he is not being kept abreast with the reality on the ground by those around him in the department who should have been working as his ‘eyes and ears’.

At this stage we are in dire need of officers like Zulfiqar Cheema and Nasir Khan Durrani, who never compromised on the principals, astutely confronted the political pressure and brought about a change in the force under their direct control, creating small islands of honesty and integrity wherever they went to serve. But the best contribution they made towards Pakistan Police was that they nurtured and groomed a team of honest, dedicated and upright police officers, some of which are still working somewhere in the country challenging and confronting the prevalent dishonest system.

Now is the time that we need more and more of such officer who wrote history of policing and honesty in the department.