ICT Police to increase strength to meet growing challenges of policing in Islamabad

Islamabad : After a prolonged delay, the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) Police have decided to press the federal government to increase its strength to meet the growing challenges of policing in the federal capital.

At present total strength of ICT police stands at 11,633 personnel, from the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) right down to the Constable of Police. This strength is hardly enough to meet the challenges of routine policing, crime fighting and to cope with emergency situations like managing the protests and rallies, which are occurring too frequently in the federal capital.

Last time the ICT Police formally recruited staff to fill in the gaps that have emerged was back in the year 2005 when about 3,000 officials were recruited from the ranks of Constables, Head Constables and Assistant Sub-Inspectors (ASIs). Later in the year 2009 the ICT police again recruited staff against the vacant seats, which were not more than 1,000 individuals.

After passage of 18th amendment in the Constitution, the ICT Police expanded its administrative set and created 10 more police stations, keeping in view the expansion of the federal capital and increase in population. However, no new recruitments were made to staff these new 10 police stations and officials, all ranks, were deployed in these new police stations from the available strength, a step which reflected adversely on the performance of the department, leading to increase in crimes, especially the street crimes, because the presence of police at public places was reduced. At present approximate strength of each police station is between 20 to 40 individuals, which are pathetically low. According to the police experts a strength of at least 100 officials is necessary for effective policing in the jurisdiction of each police station.

However, now the IGP Islamabad, Amir Zulfiqar, has taken a strong initiative and made a presentation to the Prime Minister Imran Khan, highlighting major issues being confronted by the ICT Police, especially lack of human resource as well as the technical support resources, including patrolling vehicles (vans/bikes), the IT equipment including cameras, especially night vision cameras and other equipment including arms and ammunition.

It was learnt that the Prime Minister agreed to the requests and demands put forth by the IGP Amir Zulfiqar, but initiative is likely to hit snags because the ICT Police head, the IGP Islamabad, is not empowered to decide to go for recruitment of much needed manpower and acquire other technical support items.

The sources in the ICT Police told ‘The News’ with the condition of anonymity that the existing total strength of the ICT Police, including the ITP, stands at 11,633, which includes 8,147 Constables, 1,568 Head Constables and 1,142 Assistant Sub Inspectors (ASIs), which comes to 10,857 out of the total strength of 11,633! This clearly indicates that these 10,857 lower ranking personnel are running the policing system of the federal capital.

It was learnt that the IGP Amir Zulfiqar has requested the Prime Minister to permit recruitment of at least 3,000 new staff but the Ministry of Interior has notified recruitments against vacant seats only.

So, the Islamabad Police have obtained a formal approval of Prime Minister Imran Khan for recruitment on 1,262 only and that too against the vacant posts including Assistant Sub-Inspectors (ASIs) and Constables after a long gap of 10 years and an official notification has also been issued for the purpose.

According to the notification, the government has allowed the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) police to advertise the vacant posts in the daily widely published national newspapers for making appointments against the vacant posts.

The request, it was learnt, has been forwarded to the Interior Ministry, which in turn will assess the demands/requirements and will forward that to the Ministry of Finance for final approval and allocation of necessary funds. How long the whole process will take to complete could be anybody’s guess despite the fact that the whole issue is of high priority and all the requirements and demands are very pressing amidst prevailing circumstances.

The police experts were of the opinion that unless there is a visible presence of police in the community, the crimes, especially the street crimes cannot be controlled effectively.

“It is a psychological factor that you can easily observe that motorists would immediately slow down the speed, will put on seat belts and drop cell phones the moment they will see the traffic police officials ahead. This simple example shows how strongly the visual presence of the police can make people abide by the laws,” a senior retired police officer said.

Last sanction for police recruitment was granted back in 2005 (Musharraf regime). The Ministry of Interior during the civil government didn’t give any approval for filling vacant seats. That shows least interest of the previous governments towards strengthening the police force.

However, in 2009, the PPP government allowed to recruit on vacant seats only partially. But at the same time they established 10 new police stations, piling up extra burden of at least 400 police personnel (about 40 policemen for every police station).

One have to keep in mind that the population of Islamabad has almost doubled over the same period bringing about extra administrative and security load after 18th Amendment.

The Islamabad police authorities were demanding 7,000 to 8,000 personnel for Law & Order Division (Operational Police), the Traffic Division and Security Division, to meet their requirement but no attention was given by the civil governments to accept the demand after 2005. From 2010 till date there were about 6,000 requests to meet operational capabilities remained pending that were never processed.

According to the latest official notification, issued after approval of the Prime Minister, the appointments will be made against 18 vacant posts of ASIs, 1,156 constables (BPS-07), 66 constables in the Counter Terrorism Force (BPS-07), 3 constables Mounted Police (Male), 19 constables Band Staff (Male) (BPS-07).